


Vault 99

by vinegar-and-glitter (vinegarandglitter)



Series: Long Road Home [1]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Universe, Automatron DLC, Companions, F/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Psychotropic Drugs, Vault-Tec Are Huge Dicks, the gang's all here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-09-23 02:21:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 48,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9636575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vinegarandglitter/pseuds/vinegar-and-glitter
Summary: Nora and MacCready explore an unknown vault in search of supplies for settlements and discover another one of Vault-Tecs horrors, leaving Nora trapped between the present and the past and MacCready fighting to save her.Takes place after all MacCready personal quests but before pre-romance. Post being banished from the Institute. Minutemen affiliation.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Help, I have fallen into a new OTP and I can't get up. This is a weird plot-bunny but just... bear with me. I also apologise in advance for:
> 
> Non-American spelling  
> My inability to write action in any way, shape or form

**NORA**

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

Nora took a moment to roll her eyes before plugging her Pip-Boy into the control. “Well gee, Han Solo, what does the Wookie think?” 

She didn’t need to turn around to see MacCready’s look of confusion at her quippy response. She’d seen it plenty of times before in the last 6 months they’d been travelling together. But no time to mourn the loss of classic cinema - they had an unknown Vault to explore. 

“I don’t know what the Wookie is, but I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d agree that this place is more than a little creepy,” responded MacCready from his position as lookout. “Come on, boss, can we just leave it?” 

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. And Nora was pretty sure MacCready knew it. They’d been keeping up a pretty grueling pace establishing new settlements and searching for supplies to keep them going. So when she’d heard of an unexplored vault not far from the settlement at Sunshine Tidings Co-op, of course she was going to check out it. If it turned out to be full of useful materials, it was near enough to a settlement to add to the supply lines and could be a huge boon to the entire Minutemen cause. 

At least, that’s the pitch she’d given MacCready and Preston when she’d set out. Preston had been cautiously optimistic but MacCready had been pretty vocal about it being a terrible plan from day one. The argument had escalated enough that she’d finally snapped and told him he didn’t have to come with her, he was more than welcome to stay at Sanctuary and help out. 

His response to that had been quick. _Don’t be ridiculous, of course I’m coming with you. But I still think it’s a bad idea._

Nora didn’t really want to think too much on why MacCready had been so insistent he come along despite his misgivings. Ever since their visit to MedTek to retrieve the cure for Duncan, their relationship had been… well, for lack of a better word, _weird_. He’d given her back the caps she’d paid him when they first met in Goodneighbor months ago and had made it more than clear that he was traveling with her as a friend and partner rather than a hired gun. And hey, she appreciated every friend she had in this brave new world. But every now and then, he’d give her this look she couldn’t quite read, or a seemingly innocent touch would send sparks all through her body, or it would hit her that listening to him snore when it was her turn to keep watch was one of the only sounds in the entire Commonwealth that made her feel safe. 

“We’re not leaving it, MacCready.” 

The sounds of the vault door opening punctuated her response, closely followed by the sound of MacCready readying his weapon. “Safety off, boss. I don’t know what we’re going to find in there but I’d be a hel- heck of a lot happier if you had a weapon in your hand while we’re finding out.”

Nora pulled a pistol from her pocket gamely and pushed past MacCready to head into the vault. Compared to Vault 111, it was almost blindingly bright inside. Clearly there were no issues with maintaining power. _Good. More chances we’ll find something in here we can break down and use._

_Also more chance we’ll find something living in here that’s ready to give us all kinds of hell._

So maybe it was reckless. She knew Vault-Tec weren’t exactly the bastions of humanity they’d always claimed to be. She knew what kind of shit went down in vaults like these. But if there was a chance that this vault was a gold-mine for her settlements, she had to find out. Because the Minutemen’s goals were too important. Making a better life for all the people who depended on her was too important. 

And she had to have something important to do. Because if she didn’t, then what was she? Just another pre-war relic, no better than a well-preserved packet of Fancy Lad snack cakes. Just a fragile, delicate mother who never got a chance to raise her baby, a woman out of time with no purpose, no reason for being at all. 

It had been a month since she’d finally made it into the Institute. A month since she realised her son was head of the Commonwealth’s most feared boogeyman. A month since she realised, truly realised what had been stolen from her. And a month since she realised that she couldn’t turn her back on the world above ground. She couldn’t overlook everything the Institute had taken from these people. And she couldn’t condone what her son was doing. 

Looking back, she felt the curling tendrils of guilt in her stomach. A mother’s love should be unconditional. But she’d never had the chance to even be a mother properly - and evidently, she wouldn’t have been a very good one. 

And god, was that weighing on her mind. What she’d said. What she’d done. She’d turned her back on her own flesh and blood, made an enemy of the Institute in one single moment. Part of her wondered if he’d hear her out if she returned and said she’d changed her mind, but another part knew that wasn’t who he’d been raised to be. 

Another, even more horrible part knew that she’d done the right thing by the people of the Commonwealth. That now she’d been there, she was the only one who could find a way to bring down the Institute permanently. By strengthening the Minutemen, making them a force to be reckoned with, she could make a real difference in people’s lives. 

She’d made her decision. Hell, she’d even doubled-down. But what she hadn’t done is tell anyone what had really happened to her son. As far as anyone else knew, Shaun was dead. That’s what she’d told everyone. Preston, Curie, Deacon… all of the weird and wonderful people she’d managed to someone convince to stand by her. 

That’s what she’d told MacCready. 

And oh, it was on the tip of her tongue every time she saw him. All she wanted to do was tell him what really happened. MacCready was the one person Nora trusted most in this entire era. But every time she nearly said something, she thought of Duncan and everything they’d done to make sure he was cured. 

And she pictured the look on MacCready’s face when he found out she’d turned on her own son. Horror. Anger. Disgust. 

If she saw that look on his face anywhere other than in her nightmares, she didn’t think she could keep on living in this world. 

_Not the time or the place for self-pity, Nora._ Banishing her companion’s face from her mind, she headed deeper into the vault. 

**MACCREADY**

This woman was going to be the death of him. 

For not the first time in the past week, MacCready found himself wondering why he didn’t just take her up on her offer to stay behind in Sanctuary. He’d told her that vaults freaked him out (what was that term she’d used again? Heeby-jeeby? Vaults gave him heeby-jeeby. Or something). She should know Vault-Tec shouldn’t be trusted. Vault 111 should have taught her that ever since she defrosted. But she’d been a woman on a mission the entire time he’d known her - even if that mission tended to change - and there was nothing that was going to stop her from exploring Vault 99. 

God help him. 

And really, he should know by now that when Nora sets her mind on something, Nora’s going to do it, even if it seems ridiculous, impossible or downright suicidal to any sane person. Find a way into the Institute to find her son? Sure. Make her way across the Glowing Sea on a fraction of a lead? Why not? Agree to take down an entire highway’s worth of Gunners on the advice of some guy she picked up in a bar in a town like Goodneighbor? Not even a moment’s hesitation. 

Not that he wished she’d hesitated. Well, not at the time, at any rate. Now that he knew her better and knew just how likely she was to run head on into danger… well, he kind of wished he hadn’t encouraged her. 

He owed her. More than he could ever begin to repay. So there was no way in hell he was letting her explore some unknown vault alone. 

_Yeah, but she wouldn’t have had to be alone,_ a niggling voice in the back of his head pointed out. _She’s got other friends who’d have gladly come with her. Valentine’s not exactly a pushover. Hancock can hold his own. There’s not a thing on earth that could stop Cait from picking a fight on Nora’s behalf when given half the chance. So why’d you insist on coming when you hate vaults so much?_

Well, that was the million cap question, wasn’t it. The idea of her going off into possible danger without him felt like a Super Mutant grabbing his heart and squeezing with all his strength. Sure, he knew in his head that any other of Nora’s ‘companions’ would do everything they could to protect her and keep her safe - but he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t let her go without him. Not here. Not anywhere she could get hurt. 

He didn’t want to think too much about it. Because if he thought about it too much, he’d start thinking about how he hadn’t felt this safe around someone since Lucy was alive. And then he’d start thinking about how he’d told Nora things he’d never let Lucy know, things he’d never have wanted to burden her with. He’d start thinking about the relief and triumph in Nora’s eyes as she held Duncan’s long sought after cure in that godforsaken building and how it had hit him like a Deathclaw punch that no one had ever done that risky for him, ever in his entire life, and that he’d never come close to deserving that kind of loyalty. 

(He’d start thinking about her arms around him as he’d broken down and cried, right there in that Med-Tek basement, and how soft her hair was and how nice it smelled and how warm and good and right it felt to have her body pressed against his. And that was something he definitely, definitely couldn’t be thinking about.)

“Jackpot!” 

MacCready shook off his thoughts to see Nora gleefully pulling open a door to a supply cupboard, full of… well, what he once would have called junk. The same kind of junk he’d been hauling around the Commonwealth for the past six months. And yeah, he complained every time but he’d seen just what Nora could do with that junk. He groaned. He could practically feel his back aching in sympathy already and he hadn’t even filled his pack with old world telephones yet. 

“Before you say it, yes I am going to make you carry all this worthless crap,” said Nora as she knelt down, opening her back and filling it with tin cans, tools and duct tape. “Because this worthless crap is what keeps that rifle of yours shooting straight.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled, leaning against the doorframe. “But do you think that maybe we should scout the place a bit before we rip it up for parts? You know, get rid of whatever horrific surprise Vault-Tec has in store for us deeper down.” 

Nora sighed but stood up and swung her pack over her shoulder. “Yeah, you’re right. It’d be good to get this place cleared out of any hostiles and be able to send settlers back and forth to really pull the place down.” She looked thoughtful. “Depending on what’s down deeper, we might even be able to claim this place as a settlement in its own right.” 

“Because so many sane people want to live underground.”

Nora wagged a finger at him. “Uh-uh-uh, you’ve got no leg to stand on, Mayor MacCready.”

MacCready groaned again. “I never should have told you about that.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a good story,” she replied with a grin. “An underground cave, full of kids and pre-teens, surviving against all odds. It’s almost fairy tale like.” 

“Fairy tales have princesses, right?” said MacCready with a grin. “We had one of those at Little Lamplight. For about 5 minutes. I punched her in the face.”

MacCready didn’t think he’d ever get tired of Nora’s laugh. It was surprisingly unladylike, and that’s what he liked about it - deep, throaty and kind of hilarious. Over the months, he’d found himself trying to make her laugh more than was strictly necessary and counted it as a personal victory if he ever got her to laugh so hard she snorted (which shouldn’t be as appealing as it was, darn it). 

“You’re going to have to fill me in on that one later,” said Nora, her voice still laced with the ghost of her laugh. “But you had a point earlier - we really better make sure this place is secure before we do much else.”

They headed down the hallway as MacCready held his weapon tighter in his hand. He didn’t like this vault. Not one bit. It felt like… that other expression Nora had used that time. Like someone was walking over his grave. It was a weird expression - he’d pointed out that people die in unmarked graves all the time and the chances of walking over someone’s grave was, well, pretty high, but she’d explained the meaning, and… yeah, that’s what this was like. 

As they delved deeper into the vault, they found themselves plunged into darkness. Nora cursed under her breath, fiddled around with her Pip-Boy and they had enough light to go on with but _damn boss, can’t you see that this is probably a sign this is a terrible idea?_

Moments later, they found themselves at a dead end and a door that wouldn’t open. “Terminal’s right here,” said MacCready, leaning against the wall. “Looks like a hard one.” 

“Shit, you’re right,” said Nora as she settled in. “But I think I can crack this. Just give me a minute…”

He gave her several minutes and eventually after much cursing, he heard a beep that indicated success. The door opened and he was immediately aware of the sound of metal on metal and people screaming. His blood ran cold as he looked into the room. 

“What the f… frick is this place?” 

The room was full of capsules that reminded him of the loungers in the Memory Den, but smaller, more compact - more claustrophobic. The bodies inside looked like they could still be alive, but just barely - not quite ghouls but not human any more. Eyes closed, arms full of wires, pumping god knows what into their bodies. The roof was full of screens displaying all sorts of varied scenes - people being ripped apart, thousands of people marching, the bombs falling… so many scenes of the bombs falling. And so much screaming. So much screaming. 

“This is another Vault-Tec experiment,” said Nora, her voice weak. She sounded like she was barely able to stop herself from being sick, and he honestly couldn’t blame her. “It has to be. I don’t know what it is, but… oh god. These people are still alive. We have to get them out of here.”

“Will they survive if we take them out of these things?”

Nora turned to look at him, her eyes blazing. “Anything’s better than what’s happening to them now. I… I think they’re reliving their nightmares. Over and over again.” 

“Fuck.” He couldn’t stop the curse from coming out of his mouth. _Sorry, Duncan, but if you could see this…_ oh god, he’d do anything to make sure his son never saw anything like this. 

Nora was already moving toward the first body, pulling out wires frantically. “Come on, come on,” she muttered. 

“Boss, hang on a minute, we don’t know what else is in here. We can come back.”

She shook her head fiercely. “I have to help these people. They can’t… this ends now.”

“Nora, please-”

“Interference identified. Tampering with the experiment is strictly prohibited. Initializing hostile maneuvers.” 

The room filled with laser fire as a swarm of robots came in through the back. MacCready grabbed his weapon immediately and began firing, ducking behind a lounger for cover. It was then he realised Nora hadn’t even noticed and found himself cursing for the second time. He jumped back into the fray and pulled Nora to safety. 

“We need to get out of here.” 

Nora shook her head. “We need to help”

“We need to get out of here,” he insisted. “There are way, way too many of them. We can come back. We will come back.” 

“I can’t just leave them here!” 

“We will come back, Nora, I promise, we just need to go!”

Their eyes locked and he frantically tried to read her next move. He’d never seen her this worked up. No, wait, he had - when she’d come out of the lounger at the Memory Den. When she watched her husband die in front of her for the second time. 

Shit. 

She stood up and started firing at the Protectrons and Mr. Handys and he followed suit, managing to take out two robots in quick succession. A Mr. Handy unit approached and instead of firing, it scanned them both. 

“Potential subject detected. Initiating retrieval protocol.” 

“What?” MacCready yelled. 

Nora looked at him with wide eyes. “I don’t-” 

The Mr. Handy unit shot something at Nora and she hit the floor with a thud. Before he could react or move or even think, four Protectron units were on him, pushing him towards the door entrance, away from her. Away from Nora. It all happened quicker than he could really comprehend. In seconds, he was pushed toward the door, which slammed shut, leaving Nora trapped in that horror of a room. 

He managed to gather his wits long enough to take down the first of four Protectron units, which had turned on him the minute they’d gotten him out into the corridor. Hot pain went through his shoulder but he kept going, shooting like his life depended on it to destroy the rest of the units. _Just get rid of them. Get rid of them and get back in there and **get Nora.**_

Finally, after too much time, he’d managed to destroy them all. Blood was pouring from a wound in his head, obscuring his vision and he was pretty sure he’d broken his leg but he hobbled toward the terminal as quickly as he could. “Come on, come on, come on…” 

It had relocked itself. There was no way he’d be able to crack this. He had nowhere near the level of skill Nora had and even she’d found it difficult. He felt his heart start to beat faster and faster. Trapped. She was trapped in there and he couldn’t get her. 

Fumbling in his pocket for a stimpak, he used his other hand to thump on the locked door, as if hitting it enough times would miraculously open it, screaming himself hoarse as he yelled out Nora’s name over and over again.


	2. Chapter 2

**NORA**

The first thing she notices when she comes to is that she can smell coffee.

She opens her eyes to find her head on a soft, clean pillow - a clean pillow? How on earth did she end up with a clean pillow? It’s impossible to get anything truly clean these days. Isn’t it? 

“Good morning, Miss Nora! I’ve made you your coffee - precisely how you like it!”

“Codsworth?” 

Groggily, she sits up and takes in her surroundings. The pristine wallpaper. The clean, fresh sheets. The familiar, fluffy comforter. The walls with no holes in them. 

It was home. 

As in, _pre-war home._

Was it? 

“Where’s Shaun?” she asks before she can even fully think about it. If it was 2077, then her baby is here. Her baby is safe. Her baby isn’t a monster. 

“Sir is getting him ready for day care as we speak,” says Codsworth. Dimly she realises he’d been hovering nearby this whole time. “He thought you might enjoy a bit of a lie in this morning - so many late nights with this horrible case of yours.” 

Nothing is making any sense. “Day care?” They hadn’t put Shaun in day care.

Codsworth’s demeanor changes almost instantly. “Oh, I see. Mr. Nate! Could you come in and speak with Miss Nora? She’s, er, a bit confused again.”

And suddenly there’s her husband, standing in the doorway, a look of concern over his handsome features. Nora’s heart jumps into her throat. 

“Nate…”

“Hi honey,” he says, almost cautiously. “Can you tell me what you remember?” 

Everything suddenly feels uncertain. “I… I don’t know.” 

His expression is warm, sympathetic but also worried. “Did you dream about the bombs again?” 

“I must have,” she concedes. She remembers those bombs falling, clear as day, but here she is, in her pre-war home, with her pre-war husband and… 

“Mommy! You’re up!”

A small figure practically cannon-balls itself at her and Nora feels tears in her eyes. It’s Shaun. It's her Shaun. But no longer a baby - he has to be around 3 years old, all bursting with energy. 

“Whoa there, buddy - remember what I said about letting Mommy rest?” 

“But she’s awake now!”

As small arms surround her, Nora can’t stop the tears from falling properly now. “Hey sweetie,” she manages to choke out before wrapping her arms around her son. 

She doesn’t know what’s going on. Maybe she’s dreaming. Maybe she’s crazy. But she can deal with that later - right now all that matters is that she has her baby in her arms, her husband at her side. Everything she’d dreamed about. Everything she’d thought she’d lost forever. 

_If this is a dream, then let me dream a little longer._

“I’ll call the firm and let them know you won’t be in today,” says Nate, his voice soft. She hadn’t even noticed him sitting down on the bed next to him. “Tell you what - let’s all play hooky today! I’ll call in sick, we’ll tell day care Shaun’s not coming and let’s all spend the day together. How does that sound?” 

“Perfect,” Nora chokes out between sobs. “Absolutely perfect.”

Nora watches as Nate pushes Shaun on the swing-set at the park, listening to his sounds of delight and holding a thermos full of hot coffee. What a way to spend an autumn day. It’s nearly Hallowe’en and this year Shaun wants to be Grognak the Barbarian. 

_“No way! This is the coolest dam-darn thing I’ve ever held!”_

Her head shoots around, looking for the familiar voice. Someone she traveled with. Someone important. She can picture in her head a young man carrying Grognak’s axe, swinging it around like a kid with a toy - which, realistically, he was. A hat with bullets. A tattered coat. Blue eyes she knows she can trust. 

Nora tries to shake it off and turns her attention back to Shaun on the swings. Nate’s heading back toward her. He sits on the bench next to her and slings his arm around her shoulders. 

“I love this park,” he says, his voice fond. 

Nora laughs. “We’ve definitely had some fun times here, love.”

He reaches over to brush her hair out of her face. “Are you feeling better?” 

She’s not sure. Suddenly, something hits her. “How did we get to the park, Nate?” 

His voice is patient. “We walked.” 

“Oh.”

He kisses her cheek gently. “Not such a good day, huh.” 

“Can you… can you explain what’s going on?” 

There’s no disguising the look of concern on his face now. “You’ve had some… memory issues for the last few years. When Shaun was about a year old, there was a bomb scare. We spent about 24 hours in a vault, thinking that this was it - this was the big one. It was a false alarm. Everything was fine. You… didn’t cope very well.” 

A rush of anger hits her like a tidal wave. _You have no idea what I can cope with, Nate. What I’ve had to do to survive. If you could see me, you’d barely recognise me - I’ve killed people. I’ve fought monsters. I’ve walked through miles and miles of irradiated desert. All for Shaun. All to find him. And to save him. And it wasn’t enough!_

Nate strokes her hair. She takes a deep breath. 

“The doctors call them dissociative episodes. Memory issues.” He sighs. “You’ve been doing really well for the last few months - you’ve even been able to go back to work. But if things are getting bad again… I think we need to see the doctor.”

Memories and certainties (are they really certainties?) flash through her mind. 

Shaun is three years old and he’s completely safe. The world is no longer at war. Nora works at a law firm in downtown Boston. Shaun is safe. Her current case is her first one back after her illness and she’s determined to succeed. The world is no longer at war. Shaun is safe. 

“I remember now,” she says with certainty. “We can go for a check-up if you want, but.. I’m fine. It was just a blip. Just a bad morning. I’m okay.” 

Nate looks at her carefully. “You sure?” 

Nora nods. “I’m sure.” She pulls him in for a kiss. It’s chaste at first, but quickly deepens and she marvels at the taste of him, the feel of his lips on hers. Oh, she’s missed him. She feels like a drowning woman finally reaching dry land. It’s been so long. She thought she’d never see him again. 

_“I’m not letting you take Shaun!”_

_A gunshot._

_Ice._

_So much ice._

_“I’ll find out who did this. And I’ll find Shaun.”_

“Daddy, you need to push me again!”

Nate breaks off the kiss and chuckles. “No rest for the wicked.” He touches her cheek tenderly. “You wanna stay here or can we convince you to take on the slide?” 

They walk toward the swing-set hand-in-hand. 

Just for an instant, the sky turns sickly green. 

**MACCREADY**

MacCready drew in a sharp breath at the familiar sensation of the stimpak penetrating his skin. He felt relief almost instantly in his busted leg and hoped like heck he’d be able to walk on it soon. He had to find another way into that room. He just had to. 

_Screw it._

He started hobbling down the hallway, movement getting easier as the stimpak did its job and found a locked side door. After fishing a bobby pin out of his pocket, he got to work - and soon realised that his lock-picking skills were nowhere near up to this one. 

Dread started to bubble up in his stomach. What if there wasn’t another way to get to her? Why hadn’t he actually hounded Nora to teach him how to pick locks better - she was always brilliant at it? And the terminal… god, he was useless. 

_Ripping yourself a new one isn’t going to help her,_ he told himself sternly. _Think, MacCready. Think._

Another side door soon presented itself, which was much easier to open but led to a dead end. He noted wryly that it was full of the boss’s favourite flavour of junk - a whole bunch of duct tape. 

Nora’s words rung in his head. _Duct tape is a mystical substance that holds the world together. There’s practically nothing it can’t do. I could build a whole damn settlement from duct tape alone if I had to. Complain all you want about the tin cans and the typewriters, but we never, never, never leave duct tape behind._

Before he closed the door, he filled his pockets with packets of duct tape. 

Another half an hour of methodically trying each and every door that was either unlocked or with a lock he could pick and MacCready was this close to a full blown panic attack. Nothing. Nothing led any further into the vault. He couldn’t stop the thought he’d been pushing away ever since that door slammed from finally making its way to the front of his mind. 

He couldn’t do this by himself. He had to get help. 

Every single fibre of his being screamed that there was no way he could leave her there. But he’d run out of options. He needed a game plan. 

_Get out of the vault._

_Head to the nearest settlement._

_Get word out to anyone and everyone who could help._

His leg wasn’t completely healed yet - what it really needed was another stimpak and at least an hour’s sleep - but there was no way in hell he was doing that until he’d called in some reinforcements. 

Against his better judgment, he all but ran to that cursed locked door. 

“Nora, I’m getting help,” he called out as loudly as he could. Logically he knew there was no way she could hear him (not through that door, even if she was conscious - he just knew they’d plugged her into one of those horrific capsules but he couldn’t think of that now) but he had to explain. 

“I’m getting help. Valentine, Preston, Cait - anyone. Everyone. I’ll call in the whole damn team and we will get you out of here.”

The urge to cry hit him suddenly and he had to blink away tears before continuing. “I’m coming back, Nora. I promise. I’m coming back for you. We’re getting you out of there. Just… hold on. Please.”


	3. Chapter 3

**NORA**

It’s a Saturday night and for the first time since Shaun was born, Nate and Nora are out for dinner and dancing. The dimly lit jazz club is smoky and intimate. The dark-haired woman in a red dress croons out a familiar number. _Magnolia is in fine form tonight,_ Nora thinks to herself. 

_Wait, how do I know this woman’s name?_

_Do I know this woman’s name?_

She shakes her head and looks over again. It’s not a dark-haired woman in a red dress, it’s a blonde in a blue dress. But maybe, maybe they’re the same eyes. 

They sit at the bar. The bartender looks over at them appraisingly, seemingly unimpressed. 

“You two seem awful clean cut for a place like this,” she says casually, Irish accent lilting. “Not like our normal clientele.” 

“And who’s your normal clientele?” Nora asks, keeping her tone equally casual. 

“Raiders.”

What? 

Nora’s blood runs cold. “Did you say raiders?”

The bartender - Cait, her name is Cait - frowns. “Rabble rousers, is what I said. You feeling alright there, sunshine?” 

“Two rum and Nuka Colas, please,” says Nate. It’s almost like he’s completely unaware of their conversation. 

Cait smiles. “Oooh, you’re a handsome one, aren’t ya? You be wanting that Nuka Cola ice cold?” 

_A thin layer of frost covers Nate’s shirt.  
_

_Everything is so cold._

“Sounds great,” says Nate, returning the bartender’s smile. Nora feels like she should be annoyed that this redheaded Irish girl is flirting with her husband, but she knows that Cait flirts as easily as she breathes. 

But Nora doesn’t know this bartender, does she? When did they meet? How do they know each other? 

_”Only thing better than gettin’ pissed is pickin’ a fight. Am I right?”_

No, she doesn’t know this woman. There’s just something wrong with her. PTSD, the doctor said. A lot of things the doctor said don’t add up but Nate assures her it’s fine. That it’s all going to be okay. 

_Cait’s standing by the window, looking into the clean room, hesitation clear in the way she holds herself. In the way she stands._

_“The answer to me problems is sittin’ in that room, but I dunno if I should go through with it.”_

_Nora’s first thought is frustration - they’ve come so far. They’ve fought through the Vault, through the Gunners, all for her to back out now? But then she remembers the stories Cait’s told her of her past. Everything she’s suffered. Everything she’s gone through._

_So Nora asks. “Don’t you want to get better?”_

_Cait looks torn. “I don’t know. Me body’s tellin’ me to get it over with, but what if the Psycho’s the only thing keepin’ me together? What if this opens my eyes, and I don’t like what I see? There were reasons I dulled the pain. Things I didn’t wanna face. Things I was tryin’ to forget. I’d rather be spittin’ blood than relivin’ the past.”_

_Nora doesn’t know as much about medicine as she should. She doesn’t understand as much about the various chems of the wasteland her beloved Boston had turned into to be absolutely certain. But what she does know is that if Cait doesn’t do this, if she doesn’t purge the toxins and get better, then she’ll lose her._

_Nora has lost enough people for two lifetimes._

_“I don’t want to lose a friend.”_

_Cait looks stunned. Her voice turns soft. “You’d really miss me, wouldn’t ya?” There’s a moment, and then resolve floods her features. “Well, who am I to let you down?” She sighs. “I’m gonna sit in the chair. Whenever you’re ready, you go ahead and throw the switch.”_

The bartender clears her throat. She’s holding a drink toward Nora. From the looks of things, she’s been holding it for awhile. She looks at her quizzically. “You in there, gorgeous?” 

“Sorry,” Nora apologises. 

Cait smiles. “If you’re really sorry, how about a tip? Sure you can spare some caps.”

“Caps?”

Her smile falters slightly. “Cash. Jesus, do I need to cut you off already?” 

Nate’s arms are around her, guiding her to table in the corner. They sit and watch Magnolia croon in her red dress - blue dress - is it a red dress? Is she brunette? Is she blonde? 

The world shifts on its axis. 

Nora wakes up in her soft, warm bed. Shaun climbs up beside her and curls into her side, brandishing a book. “Story, Mom! Story!”

She kisses him on the head, opens the book and begins to read. 

“Once upon a time there was a baby Deathclaw who had lost its mom.” 

“What’s a Deathclaw?”

Nora frowns. “I’m not sure.”

The sun rises a brilliant red. 

“You’re going to be good at daycare, aren’t you champ?”

Nate bends down and gives Shaun a hug, which Shaun wriggles out of in an instant. 

“I’m okay Daddy, you can go now!”

Nate laughs. “Well, it’s good you’re making friends.”

Shaun runs into the room full of other kids, moving his head from side to side as he looks for someone. Nora hears the door behind them open and Shaun’s eyes light up. 

“Duncan!”

A small boy with light brown hair barrels past Nora and runs toward Shaun. They start chattering immediately, huddling together as thick as thieves. She looks on fondly and hears a laugh from over her shoulder. 

“And here I was, thinking he’d have a hard time making friends,” says a painfully familiar voice. 

Nate laughs. “We had the same worry too, but looks like we had nothing to worry about. You must be Duncan’s father. I’m Shaun’s dad Nate, and this is my wife Nora.” 

Nora turns. Her heart thumps uncomfortably. “MacCready?” 

He smiles, showing off perfectly normal teeth. There’s something not right about that image. He doesn’t address her greeting at all. Almost like he hadn’t heard it. Almost like she hadn’t said it at all. 

“Robert,” he says, taking Nate’s hand and giving it a shake. He takes her hand a moment later. Sparks fly through her body. 

_”We did it… holy crap, we actually did it! We just gave Duncan a fighting chance to live.”_

Everything turns black.

**CAIT**

Compared to some places she’d found herself in over the years, Sunshine Tidings Co-op was not a shithole. But damn, was it boring sometimes. Nora had asked her to stick around and give the settlers a hand while she and MacCready checked out that nearby vault, which was fair enough - after everything Nora had done for her, she wasn’t about to kick up a fuss about doing some goddamn gardening. But still, she was itching for a fight. Or a drink. 

Or a shag. She’d made pretty good friends with Lara, the settler running the bar, and they’d had a couple of good rolls in the hay - nothing to it, obviously, she’s not about to get fucking feelings involved, but Lara was obviously busy with her day job. Maybe later in the evening she’d knock off and they’d knock boots a little. Sure, she was gettin’ some judgey looks from the other settlers, but Lara didn’t seem to care and it didn’t worry Cait.

It wasn’t like she’d be at Sunshine forever, after all. She’d arrived with Nora and MacCready about a week ago and they’d set about building some walls and turrets, trying to give the big wide open space a little more cover. Then, the two of them headed out to this unknown vault that didn’t show up on any of the maps and asked Cait to stay put and help out. 

Which was fine by her, really. She had no desire to be a third wheel to whatever it was that was going on between Nora and the merc. Unlike some of Nora’s motley crew of hanger-ons, Cait quite liked MacCready. Sure, he could be a little shite sometimes but as she’d gotten to know him, she’d realised there was a damn good man under all that wisecracking. And there was definitely something between him and Nora, though she’d bet heavily that neither of them really understood what it was yet. 

Cait loved Nora, more than anyone she’d ever known. Sure, Nora was definitely easy on the eyes, and they’d occasionally get into a bit of harmless flirting, but her love for Nora wasn’t necessarily a romantic kind of love. She was her best friend and only confidant, someone who she could truly rely on, and that was good enough for her. 

But Nora and MacCready… now, there was a tale for the ages. Prewar housewife meets Gunner-turned-mercenary. They were total opposites, but also the same - two parents, mourning the loss of their partner, trying to do right by their kids. 

Thinking about Nora’s kid made something clench in Cait’s gut. She’d never forget the look on Nora’s face when she came back from the Institute. The look on her face when she told them Shaun was dead. 

Cait shook it off and let her mind wander to what Nora and Mac were up to now. To be honest, part of Cait thought this mysterious Vault 99 was a bit of a joke. Vaults weren’t exactly a dime a dozen, but they weren’t a wasteland rarity either. Still, no one had heard of this Vault 99 but this one settler who claimed he’d stumbled upon it but not dared to go in. “You ain’t catching me dead in one of those holes,” he’d said when he’d told Nora about its location. “So I haven’t exactly scouted it out. But it’s definitely there.”

It wasn’t on Nora’s PipBoy map, though, so Cait had voiced her doubts, and MacCready had too, but for different reasons. Cait didn’t think it existed. MacCready was worried that it did and was full of all sorts of horrors. Sensing how much it freaked him out, Cait had taken him aside offered to go instead but he’d flat-out refused. And sure, Cait was a bit offended that MacCready would think she’d let anything happen to Nora, but as he struggled to explain himself, she calmed down. 

Cait knew Nora could handle herself and that any of her friends would keep her as safe as was humanly possibly in the Commonwealth, and that was enough for her to stay back and help out like Nora had asked. MacCready, however, had to see it with his own eyes. 

_God help him, that boy’s totally gone over Nora. And he doesn’t even realize how much._

One of the guards yelled Cait’s name and she walked toward him. “What’s happenin’?”

He pointed out to a figure in the distance. “That the merc? The General’s not with him.”

Cait’s blood ran cold. _Shite._ She took off in a sprint and ran toward MacCready. As she got closer, she could see he was limping, quite badly, and holding his arm in a funny position. And no sign of Nora at all. 

“Where’s Nora?” she asked as soon as she was within earshot. “Are you okay? Christ Mac, look at your leg - what the hell happened?”

“Robots in the vault,” he managed to say through obvious pain. “They took her - they took Nora.” 

Cait’s mouth dropped open. “You left her in the vault?” 

“I had no choice!” he snapped. “I couldn’t get in. I couldn’t hack the terminal, I couldn’t pick the locks, I’m fuc- freaking useless and couldn’t help her. Is the radio working? We need to get in touch with everyone and find someone who can hack a terminal and get her back.”

“What would the robots want with her?” Cait demanded. “Is she still alive?” 

“I’m pretty sure she is,” he replied, his face growing more and more ashen as he continued. “They… they were doing experiments on people. Keeping them alive but experimenting. It was all to do with nightmares, Nora said. Making people relive their nightmares.”

“Fucking hell,” Cait swore. She didn’t even want to think about what Nora must be going through. If there was anyone who had plenty of demons to haunt her, it was Nora. 

“Who can… hack a terminal?” asked MacCready, his breathing becoming more and more labored as he stubbornly continued back toward the settlement. “I thought maybe Valentine? Or Deacon, does he do…. computers and sh-stuff?” 

“We’ll get them all.” Cait flung her arm around his shoulder to support him. “What the hell happened to your arm?” 

“Yao Guai, right outside the vault.” He was breathing very heavily now and his skin was almost grey. “Got the… jump on me. I wasn’t… shit, I wasn’t thinking straight.” 

Cait didn’t really know why MacCready usually stopped himself from swearing but the fact that he wasn’t said a lot about his state. 

“Hey, let’s just take a minute, let you catch your breath.”

He shook his head violently. “No time… already wasted too much time… radio.”

“Hey!” Cait yelled at the guard she could still see in the distance. “Little help here! He’s hurt!”

There was a thud as MacCready hit the ground. 

“Shite.”


	4. Chapter 4

**NORA**

Things are starting to make more sense now.

Nora wakes up in the mornings and Codsworth has breakfast ready for her, Nate and Shaun. Shaun plays with his Sugar Bombs, despite being told not to repeatedly. He gets away with more than he should, maybe, but Nora remembers how long she searched for him. How she trekked through an irradiated wasteland on the tiniest sliver of a clue. Nothing stopped her when he was taken from her. She’s just glad he’s here and safe and not an old man, living underground. He can do whatever the hell he wants with his Sugar Bombs. 

Except that he was never lost. She never trekked through an irradiated wasteland. She hadn’t seen him as an old man. That’s all just… hallucinations. Delusions. Breaks from reality. 

But she can remember how it all felt. Sometimes a shot of pain will break through her like a gunshot (loud, hard and ugly, like a shotgun) and she’ll have to take a moment to centre herself. 

She’s here. 

She’s home. 

She’s safe. 

Nate’s carpool arrives and she and Shaun wave him goodbye. She catches a glimpse at the driver and remembers the clanking of Power Armor, the sound of laser weapons firing. Except that she doesn’t. Not really. 

Then she piles Shaun in the car and drops him off at daycare. Shaun makes a beeline for his friend Duncan and Nora tries not to think about Duncan’s father. The man with the blue eyes who looks so familiar. They haven’t run into each other all week and there’s a part of her that’s glad. There’s another part of her that’s desperate to see him. 

She feels guilty about it. He’s so young. She’s a married woman. A happily married woman - lately Nate’s been holding her like he’s afraid she’ll slip out of his fingers any minute, and she’s content to let him. She remembers how he looked in that vault. Cold. Frozen. It was almost like he was sleeping, but she knew better. 

Nora had watched her husband die. 

Except that she hadn’t. Not really. 

She heads toward the office, clean and fresh in her blouse, skirt and blazer, along with those kitten heels that make her feel powerful. She gets held up at the Mass Pike Interchange. 

_Maybe it’s an Assaultron,_ she thinks to herself. 

Of course it’s not an Assaultron. She doesn’t know what she’s thinking. 

Eventually, she gets to the office. She makes a cup of coffee. She tries to stay calm when one of the senior partners blatantly stares at her ass. 

_You have no idea how many ways I could kill you. You have no idea what I’ve done to survive. If you did, you’d show me some more goddamn respect._

She shakes her head, smiles politely and excuses herself to the bathroom. She looks in the mirror and takes a long, hard look at her reflection. 

Not much has changed. (Everything has changed.) 

For a flash of a moment, she sees the version of herself she sees in her memories. The memories that aren’t real. Sunken in cheeks. Wild eyes. A scar above her right eye. Dirt. So much dirt. Hair a matted mess pulled off her face. 

She looks almost feral. Lean and mean, like someone who’s learned how to survive. 

Except that she doesn’t. Her dark hair is perfectly pinned to curl coquettishly above her temple. Her cheeks are round and full. Her skin is smooth and clean. She smiles and reveals white teeth, contrasting with the deep plum of her lipstick. 

Everything’s fine. 

“Nora. Nora Pendleton?” 

Nora turns to see a woman in a red trench coat, leaning against the door. She hadn’t heard her come in. 

“That’s right,” she says calmly. 

_”Never thought a reporter could consider themselves a success until someone threatened their life. Me? I’m very successful.”_

“Piper Wright, Boston Bugle,” she says, her smile more like a shark baring its teeth. “I’d like to ask you a few questions on the Warwick case.” 

“No comment,” Nora replies automatically. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be here, Miss Wright.”

Piper ignores. “Roger Warwick’s son says that before his murder, he was acting strange. Not like himself.”

“Again, no comment. And I don’t see what that’s got to do with anything.”

“Is this case related to the hunt for the serial killer known as Father?” 

_It’s really him. It’s really Shaun. But he’s so old. He’s the one behind all the suspicion. All the pain. All the kidnappings and experiments. I can’t be around this. I can’t support this._

_My baby’s dead._

“Whoa, you okay there Blue?” 

Nora’s head snaps toward the reporter. “What did you call me?” 

Miss Wright looks confused. “Mrs. Pendleton?” 

“Right.” 

The reporter narrows her eyes. “From your response, I’m going to say that yes, this is about Father.” 

“I told you, no comment,” Nora snapped. “Anyway, why are you hassling us lawyers? We’re here to defend Mrs. Warwick. We’ve said nothing about this being connected to Father.”

Piper shrugs. “You’re defending Mrs. Warwick. Saying she didn’t kill her husband. Well, someone did. You’d be trying to find out who, wouldn’t you?” 

“I’m an attorney, not a detective.”

She was a detective, once. For a little while, at least. Got the fedora and the coat and everything. Uncovered a murder and all that jazz. Facial reconstruction can be nasty business. 

Except that she was never a detective. 

“Well, the detective on the case isn’t exactly answering my calls these days,” says Piper, taking a drag of a cigarette Nora hadn’t even noticed her light. “He’s been a different man since they let Winter walk.”

“Winter?” Nora asks, confused. 

_Eddie Winter. The holotapes. All around the Commonwealth, looking for those damn holotapes. Letting Nick have his vengeance. His peace. His closure. But was it really closure?_

“Eddie Winter,” Piper clarifies before she can stop her. “Must have been before your time. I’ve done my homework on you, Mrs. Pendleton. Took some time off to have a kid then came back. And now you’re back at square one with your career. Must be frustrating.”

Maybe it would have been, in another universe. Being thought of as less than her male colleagues simply because she’d given birth. But now she knew how precious family was. How hard she’d fought to find Shaun safe. How devastated she’d been when Nate was killed. 

Except none of that happened. 

Her head hurt. 

“I need to get back to work, Miss Wright,” says Nora finally, rubbing at her temple. She pauses. “Your best way to get out undetected is the lift in the upper west side of the third floor. No one ever uses it. Someone says it’s infested with radroaches or something.”

Piper frowns. “With what?” 

“Cockroaches,” Nora corrects herself. “You’re a tough reporter. You can handle some bugs.”

She pushes open the bathroom door and heads back to her desk. 

**MACCREADY**

It took him a few minutes when he finally came to to figure out where he was. He hadn’t helped Nora set up the clinic at Sunshine Tiding’s so he didn’t know it too well, but he had been in the house they’d set aside for it a couple of times. He didn’t hurt as much as he thought he should - clearly whoever was the medic at this place actually knew what they were doing. 

“Good, you’re awake, lazybones.”

The familiar Irish accent made him feel a little calmer. “Morning to you too, Cait.”

He looked over to see Cait laughing humorlessly. “Morning? It’s 3 in the bloody afternoon. You gave me a hell of a fright, MacCready. And now that you up, we should talk about what the fuck’s going on with Nora and that damned vault.”

Panic seized his gut again. “How long was I out?” 

“About a day.” Cait handed him a bottle of purified water and he drank it eagerly. “You really fucked yourself up, mate. Concussion, fractured knee, broken arm… which makes me think that whatever’s down there isn’t something isn’t something we should be fucking around with.”

“Hey, we’re not leaving her there!” In a moment of stupidity, he tried to get up off the bed, only to find that nothing was cooperating in the slightest. 

“Sit your arse down,” Cait snapped. “I didn’t say we were leaving her there. I said we won’t be fucking around. We’re pulling in all the guns. I’ve sent out a radio message to everyone. With any luck, in a couple of days we’ll have a fucking army on our hands and we’ll be able to take whatever’s in that damned vault.” 

“It won’t be any good if we can’t get in,” MacCready pointed out. 

“You already said that before you passed out. Valentine was the first to respond. He and Piper just left Diamond City and are on their way to us. Nick knows his way around a computer. He’ll get us in.” 

Cait’s words sounded a lot more confident than she did. All of a sudden, the pain caught up with him. MacCready hissed then lay back against the pillow. “F- freaking heck.”

“By the time everyone gets here, you’ll have recovered and we’ll be well on our way to getting her back,” said Cait, almost gently. “Don’t worry.” 

He grit his teeth. “I didn’t want to leave her. I had to, but I didn’t want to.”

Cait’s smile is sad but genuine. “I know you didn’t, Mac. I know you would never leave her unless you had to. You know you made the right call, don’t you?” 

“Did I?” Now that he was conscious again, he was wondering. The trek from the vault back to the Co-op had been much more treacherous than he’d anticipated - the yao guai came out of nowhere. _Just goes to show how freaked out I am,_ he thought ruefully. It usually took something a lot stealthier than that to sneak up on him. 

Cait nodded. “You really did. This one’s not something you can shoot your way out of.” She gave him a calculating look, then continued. “I’ve known for a while that you’d protect her with your life. You’d keep her safe or die trying.” 

He knew that. He knew that in his bones. But he didn’t realise he’d been that obvious. “Glad to see I’m still subtle and mysterious,” he joked. 

Cait rolled her eyes. “That ain’t the point I’m trying to make, Mac. The point I’m trying to make is you had a choice. You could have died _trying_ to protect her - or you could have lived, and protected her. And you chose to live. You chose her.”

MacCready laid his head back against the pillow again and thought about those words. 

“I know you love her.”

He sat back up. “I-”

“Don’t bullshit me.” Cait leaned toward him and fixed him with an intense look. “And you know what I reckon? I reckon she loves you, too. And that loving someone properly is one of the only things that’s worth a damn in this whole fucked up wasteland. So do me a favor - when we get her back, you damn well tell her. Or so help me I’ll take all of your bobby pins and lock you both in a room til you do.”

MacCready laughed weakly, then winced at the pain. Cait patted his arm. “Okay. I’ve said my piece. You get some more rest. I’ll keep rallying the troops.”

“I’m okay,” he argued. “I can help with whatever you need.” 

“Not a chance in hell,” she replied, pulling out a syringe. “You’ll rest whether you like it or not. We need you in top form so we can get your girl back.”

The Med-X drifted through him and he drifted back to sleep. 

MacCready woke hours later to the sound of Cait’s voice, coming from tinny radio speakers. 

“This is a message for all of you who’ve travelled with Nora, General of the Minutemen. We’ve got a situation and Nora needs your help. Get to Sunshine Tidings Co-op as soon as you can. If you need directions, get in touch with Radio Freedom - they’ll point you in the right direction. Repeat: this is a message for Nora’s travelling buddies - all of ya. We need all the help we can get. _Nora_ needs all the help she can get. She’s in trouble, and we’ve got a better chance of getting her out of it with all of you helping. Now, I know we’re not _all_ the best of buddies, but it’s time to set aside our differences and take care of our girl. I expect to see all of your sorry arses here in record time, you hear me? I ain’t fucking around. This is some serious shite. Nora needs ya.”


	5. Chapter 5

**NORA**

“There you are. Almost thought you’d forgotten about me.”

Nora frowns. “Why would I have forgotten about you?” 

MacCready - Robert - frowns back. “I’m sorry, what?” 

Nora cringes inwardly. It just keeps happening. Shaun and Duncan have gone off on their merry way and she’s standing next to Duncan’s dad at the doorway of the day care center, making an idiot of herself because he reminds her of something she saw in a dream. 

Hallucination. Dream. Something. 

It probably doesn’t matter, she tries to tell herself. 

“Sorry,” she offers in apology. His eyes are kind - and somewhere, in another universe maybe, they were eyes she trusted more than anyone - so she continues. “I have… well, it’s a health thing, apparently, and sometimes I… hear things.” She winces. “Oh god, sorry, that probably makes me sound like a crazy person.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy.” He shoves his hands in the pockets of his khaki jacket - khaki jacket, green pants, no bullets - and looks over to where Shaun and Duncan are happily playing in the corner. “I’ve been meaning to ask, actually - do you think we could arrange a play date between the kids sometime?” 

Nora appreciates the deflection of her outburst. “Of course. Just let me know, we can organise a time that works for all of us.” 

Robert smiles, a wide smile that shows off too perfect teeth. His eyes are so much younger. His face is so much more relaxed. _This is how he’d have looked if the world didn’t fail him. This is how the life he could have had if we hadn’t blown it all to hell. No fighting to survive. No growing up in a cave. No having to grow up all too fast._

The thoughts don’t make sense. She shakes them off. Robert doesn’t seem to notice, or if he does, he doesn’t say anything. 

“Gotta say, your kid’s made quite an impression on mine,” he says with a grin. “It’s Shaun this, Shaun that - Shaun’s always got the best toys, Shaun showed me how to make letters, Shaun’s really fun, I wish I was playing with Shaun at daycare today and not stuck with you, Dad.”

_In another life, Duncan and Shaun could have been like brothers. She can picture it now - she’d find Shaun, bring him home, they’d go to the Capital Wasteland to get Duncan, then settle down and raise them together. Two lost parents, reunited with their children._

_But that’s not going to happen because it’s been too long. My baby doesn’t exist any more._

_My baby grew up to be a monster._

“Nora?” MacCready’s voice is gentle, understanding. “You alright?” 

She looks at him and for a moment, she can almost see a green hat perched on his head. Nora blinks and realizes tears are rolling down her face. 

“Crap, I’m really sorry Mac, I didn’t mean to freak you out,” she says, hurriedly wiping her face and fixing on a wobbly smile. 

“No one’s called me Mac in years,” says Robert, blue eyes sympathetic. “Here, have this.” He hands her a pristine white handkerchief. 

Part of her wants to laugh. _Tough guy mercenary carries a handkerchief for damsels in distress?_ But that’s not who he is. That’s not what he is. 

She takes the handkerchief and wipes her face. She looks down and for a brief moment, it’s covered in oil. Nora can see him cleaning his sniper rifle as clear as anything in her mind. 

Why is it that whenever she’s with him, the lines between what’s real and what she isn’t really remembering blur so badly? 

“About that play date,” she says, keen to keep the conversation going and away from her embarrassing outburst. “Let me give you my phone number.”

_”What possible use could you have for 17 telephones, boss? They don’t work and even if they did, who the hel- er, heck are you gonna call?”_

_Nora rolls her eyes. “Do you reckon you could go for like, an hour without complaining about this?”_

_MacCready’s not impressed. “I’m serious, boss - what are you going to do with this many telephones?”_

_“I’ll have you know, telephones are a goldmine for useful parts. Circuitry, copper, fibreglass - all stuff I can use and repurpose. Circuitry is good for those weapon mods you seem to enjoy so much. Copper for power. And there’s all sorts of cool stuff I can do with fibreglass. So shut your mouth. I’ve got another 3 telephones over here for you.”_

_“Oh my god.”_

Nora fishes a piece of paper out of her handbag and writes her number down. Passing it over to him sends a spark of something through her stomach. She feels like a teenager again - giving her phone number to a boy she likes. Hoping he’ll call. 

_Except that I should absolutely not be thinking like that because I’m a married woman._

“I’ll give you a call sometime in the evening,” he promises. “We can hash out the details - and hey, if you and your husband wanted an evening to yourself, I could have both boys overnight. That is, if it’s something you’re comfortable with.”

Anyone else having Shaun overnight would scare the heck out of her. But Mac had been there all the way through her journey to find him. He’d gone to the Glowing Sea and back with her. Shaun would be safe with him. 

Shaun would have been safe with MacCready. 

If he’d ever had the chance.

Nora takes a deep breath to clear her thoughts. Robert frowns. “Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” 

“No, no, it’s not that,” she hurries to assure him. “It’s just… health stuff.”

His gaze is soft, sympathetic. Kind. “I think you’re brave, Nora.”

_It’s a clear night and the stars above are so achingly familiar that for a moment, Nora can pretend that the world hasn’t gone to hell. MacCready is grilling some mole rat they’d encountered - not her favourite meal, but at this point anything hot and vaguely nutritious would hit the spot._

_They’ve had a long day, scavving for supplies. MacCready’s made his displeasure known more than once throughout the course of their adventures and she’d finally snapped at him more than was probably necessary. The last few hours, they’ve been travelling in near silence. And sure, a break from his constant wise-cracking is nice in theory, but now it’s just getting uncomfortable._

_MacCready hands her some mole rat chunks on a ceramic plate they’d found earlier in the day._

_“Thanks,” she says quietly. They exchange a long look._

_“Hey, boss-”_

_“Look, Mac-”_

_The tension breaks and they both laugh. “You first,” he says with a smirk._

_“I’m sorry I snapped at you.” She picks at the meat. “And I’m sorry if it seems like I’m just using you as a pack horse, but I promise all the stuff I scav is actually useful.”_

_“I’m sorry I was an assh- er, I’m sorry I was a jerk about it,” he apologises with a sigh. “You’ve done so much for me, more than I could ever repay, and it’s not fair of me to complain about carrying stuff.”_

_“I guess it probably does seem like just random crap to the average person,” Nora admits. “But it’s all stuff I can use to make things better for the settlers.”_

_“You’re something else, you know that?” Nora stares at him for a moment and he reddens. “Sorry, that came out more judgey than I wanted it to. What I mean is that there aren’t a heck of a lot of people who’d spend as much time and energy as you are trying to make things better for others.”_

_It’s Nora’s turn to blush. “I guess… I know what the world used to be. What we used to have. And I can’t bring it back, but… maybe I can improve things little by little.” She laughs, and is a little surprised as to how bitter it sounds. “Considering it was my generation that bombed the world to hell.”_

_Mac frowns. “Hey, you shouldn’t be thinking sh- stuff like that. You’re not single-handedly responsible for the end of the world. You’re not even a little bit responsible.” He cracks a slight grin. “Unless of course you pushed that big red nuke ‘em button and just haven’t been telling me this whole time. Then we might have a problem.”_

_She thinks about what she isn’t telling him._

_How Shaun isn’t dead - he’s old and he’s the leader of the Institute._

_She thinks about how he’d hate her if he knew that she’d abandoned her child._

_She wants to tell him._

_Instead, she cracks a joke. “How did you know the button was red?”_

_He smiles properly now. “Hey, I’ve read enough comic books to know the button’s **always** red.”_

_She lets herself laugh. He looks at her with a soft smile and her stomach does a somersault._

_“After the whole… Institute thing,” she says carefully, “I needed something to focus on. I’d been so determined that I’d get to Shaun, that I’d get him back, that’d we’d be a family. And now that’s gone, I… I need something. Otherwise I’d just give up.”_

_All of a sudden, Mac’s sitting closer to her. He takes her hand in his and gives it a gentle squeeze. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through, losing Shaun,” he says softly. “I don’t know what I’d do if it were Duncan… I was so scared when he was so sick, and just the idea of losing him was more than I could handle. But you helped me when I needed someone the most, so you can bet your as- er, butt that I’ll be there for anything you need to deal with this.”_

_“I can bet my butt, huh?”_

_He smirks. “It’s a nice butt.” The minute he says it, he turns red as a tato, but she notes that he’s still holding her hand. She squeezes it back reassuringly._

_“Helping you help your son,” she says carefully, “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. And you helped me find out what happened to Shaun. Don’t sell yourself so short. You know you don’t owe me anything.”_

_Nora can’t quite read his expression. “Yes, I do. More than you’ll ever know.”_

_There’s a part of her that desperately wants him to kiss her._

_There’s a part of her that’s terrified he’ll kiss her._

_“For what it’s worth,” he begins, squeezing her hand gently again, “I think you’re brave, Nora.”_

_They sit silent under the stars, hand in hand._

She sits at her desk, nursing a third cup of coffee. Is it a third? Is it a fourth? Is it her first? She can’t remember how long she’s been here. All she knows is that there’s so much to do. And none of it is interesting in the slightest. Nothing is holding her attention. 

(If she’s still, she can still hear the crackling of the fire. Feel his calloused hand on hers.)

There’s a knock on her door. 

She looks over to see a man in the trenchcoat and fedora, standing in the doorway. He’s poised, confident. His voice is familiar, even though his face isn’t one she’s seen before. For a moment, his eyes flash yellow. 

“Detective Valentine,” she greets him. “What brings you here?” 

“Mrs. Pendleton,” he responds in kind. “Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Of course,” she replies, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. “Take a seat.”

He makes himself comfortable. For a moment, she thinks she sees metal on his neck. But that’s impossible. 

“I’ll cut to the chase,” he says, fixing her with a penetrating, yet eerily calm gaze. “New evidence has come to light on the Warwick case.”

“Why tell me instead of the senior partners who are in charge of the case?” she asks. 

Nick leans forward. “Because unlike everyone else in this firm, you don’t have your head up your ass.” He clears his throat. “Sorry ‘bout the language, doll.”

“Doesn’t bother me,” she assures him. “My husband was in the army, I’ve heard worse. What do you have for me?”

“I believe you had a visit from a mutual friend of ours,” says Nick. “A Piper Wright?”

“We’ve spoken, yes.”

“Then she told her her hunch.”

Nora raises her eyebrows. “It didn’t seem like she had much to go on. Last I heard, you weren’t interested in taking that lead any further.”

Nick shrugs. “I wasn’t. Until our new evidence came to light. We think we know where to start looking for this Father character.”

“And where might that be?”

Nick sighs. His eyes flash yellow once again. “The Commonwealth Institute of Technology.”

**MACCREADY**

The next time he woke up, it was to the sound of Cait arguing with a familiar voice. 

“He’s the only one who’s been in. We need intel.”

“Yeah, well, he needs rest, so you can shove it up your arse until he wakes up. You’re not going in there and waking him up until he’s bloody well ready.”

MacCready sat up in the bed and assessed his condition. Still one hell of a headache. He experimentally moved his arm to find he didn’t quite have a full range of movement, but it was better than it had been. As for his leg - well, he’d have to find out, wouldn’t he.

He shuffled around until he was sitting on the edge of the bed, then looked down in dismay. Someone had taken off his pants. Hurriedly, he grabbed the blanket and shoved it over his legs as he heard someone come in. 

“You shouldn’t be up!” Cait practically yelled. “Jesus Christ, MacCready.”

From the doorway, he could see everyone’s favourite tin can trying to enter. “Now that he’s up, I’d like to brief him on the situation.”

“I’d much rather have this conversation fully dressed, thank you.”

Cait pointed to the door and snarled at the Paladin. “Out. Wait outside right now. I will tell you when it’s okay to come back in.”

“Doesn’t look like he can get through the doorway in that metal suit anyway,” MacCready commented. 

Danse sighed impatiently. “We don’t have time for this.”

He tried and failed to get through the doorway. MacCready tried and failed not to laugh. 

“Go put that big hunk o’ metal somewhere, then sit outside and wait for me to tell you to come in,” Cait ordered. 

Danse looked like he was about to argue, then obviously thought better of it and turned around. The sounds of clanking power armour faded out. 

“Where are my pants?” 

“Ruined,” said Cait simply. “I didn’t throw ‘em out because I figured you’d want to get whatever you could out of ‘em and I wasn’t about to go poking through your pockets, but they’re done for.” She threw him a bundle of clothes. “Here you are. You good to get decent yourself or do you want some help?”

If he’d had a tad more energy, he might have made a lewd comment. At his silence, Cait laughed. “Or am I the wrong person to be offering help with your clothes?”

MacCready rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I can handle it.”

With some difficulty, he got his pants on while Cait turned around to get something from the corner of the room. He managed to get a couple of steps before he started to wobble and Cait was there in a shot. 

“Whoa there, you ain’t quite right yet,” said Cait. “Here you go. Thought you might want this.” She handed him a walking cane. He groaned. 

“Ugh, I hate these.”

“Yeah, well, suck it up. I don’t think I can keep the tin can out of here much longer.”

“Piper and Valentine here yet?” MacCready asked. “Last I heard, we were expecting them first.”

“I thought we were,” Cait agreed. “But then Danse showed up in a Vertibird. He’s been bossing people around ever since he got there and has been hounding me to get a full report of the situation from you.”

MacCready groaned again. “I hate that guy.”

Cait shrugged. “I know you do. But you gotta admit, his kind of firepower isn’t gonna hurt getting our girl back. He may be a pain in the arse, but he’s a fucking efficient pain in the arse. What say we all have a chat and see what we come up with?”

He didn’t argue. It didn’t need saying that there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do if it would help get Nora back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have some Nora/MacCready shipping stuff for those who actually came here for Nora/MacCready shipping rather than a weird, confusing plot.


	6. Chapter 6

**NORA**

Nora enters the bar - the same bar from however many nights before. Cait at the bar gives her a smile. Magnolia on the stage gives her a wink. She greets them, but they’re not who she’s looking for today. 

Detective Nick Valentine is sitting alone in a dark corner. She orders two whiskeys on the rocks and brings them over to his table. 

“Mrs. Pendleton,” he greets her. 

“Detective Valentine.” She slides the drink toward him. “You know, you can call me Nora.”

He tips his glass at her appreciatively. “Only if you call me Nick.”

Nora takes a seat and has a sip of her own drink, savoring the burn and relishing the taste. Good whiskey. That’s what she’d missed. The stuff they sold in the Commonwealth just didn’t cut it - apparently being aged for 200 years doesn’t improve the flavor the way you’d think it might. Although if she had to guess, it’s probably got more to do with the radiation. 

_Stop it,_ she tells herself sternly. _You’ve got a job to do._

“So what are you going to tell me about this Commonwealth Institute of Technology that you couldn’t say in my office?” 

Nick smiles. “Straight to the point. I like it.” He takes a sip of his own drink and leans forward. “Now, I realise this is going to sound a little kooky, but hear me out. There have been rumors floating around for awhile now that one of the CIT doctors has managed to create synthetic humans. Robots who look, sound, act and appear exactly like human beings.”

Nora raises an eyebrow. “I have to admit, I expected more than just rumors.”

Nick sighs. “If it were just rumors, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. What I’m about to tell is being covered up by the police department so it’s not the kind of information you should go about sharing willy-nilly. You hear me?”

“I hear you.”

Nick leans in a little closer. “We arrested a suspect in an armed robbery case last week. A team of guys, taking off with a bunch of uranium from a military facility. The cops who gave him in beat him around a little bit - too much, in my opinion. But it got him talking. Not a lot of what he said made sense, but he said he didn’t want to end up like Warwick. That Father would punish him if he said any more. That there was no way to get out.”

Nora frowns. “That makes him a valuable witness to this case. Can we question him? Where is he now?” 

Nick laughs without any humor. “Kid, you’re not getting a word out of him. He exploded.”

“I’m sorry, what?” 

Nick lights a cigarette. “Boom. His head exploded all over us, like one of those damn Vault-Tec lunchboxes. And right before the exploding head? He mentioned the Institute. Which makes our best lead…”

“... the Commonwealth Institute of Technology,” Nora finishes. She lets out a low whistle. “Must be a hell of paperwork, having a suspect die in custody.”

“That’s where it gets weirder,” says Nick. “When we got over the initial shock of the exploding head, what we found was pretty terrifying. Everything inside his head - what was left of it - was synthetic. Including a chip that the spooks got hold of almost immediately. This one’s being swept under the rug, as much as humanly possible.”

“Do you have any idea where to start at CIT?” Nora asks. “Is there a ‘Head of Robotics’ we could talk to? It’s a good starting place.”

“Not so much a ‘Head of Robotics’, but there is a doctor who’s pretty much in charge of everything that goes on. He dabbles in all sorts of things - bioscience, chemistry, robotics, you name it. My gut says he’s our guy.”

“What’s his name?”

“Davidson,” Nick replies. 

“Huh, that’s weird.”

Nick frowns. “What’s weird?”

Nora laughs. “Well, that’s my maiden name.”

She arrives at the Commonwealth Institute of Technology in plenty of time - early, in fact. But there they are, standing waiting for her in front of the building - Nick Valentine and Piper Wright. 

Piper smiles as they notice her approach. “Hey Blue, glad to have you with us.”

Nora frowns. “Why are you calling me Blue?”

_”Cause you’re a Vault Dweller? I know you’re not wearing the blue jumpsuit right now, but the Pip-Boy and that ‘fish out of water’ look? Dead giveaways.”_

Piper gestures. “Your blouse. Looks nice.”

“Uh, thank you.”

“Shall we head in?” Nick interjects, gesturing at the front door. “We’re burning daylight.”

On entering the building, the first thing they see is a short-haired woman in a pristine lab coat in the middle of a discussion with a man in a long red dress coat - a discussion she is clearly finding extremely frustrating. 

“For the last time, Monsieur Hancock, you cannot simply go through the safe and take the chems you want!” 

“Curie, I’m telling you - the old man doesn’t mind. He said to come and go as I please.”

“And I am telling you without the proper security clearance, you should not even be here!”

“You must be Doctor Curie,” Piper interrupts, getting their attention. 

“Oui,” she replies, fixing a strained smile on her face before sending one last glare at Hancock.

“I hope we’re not interrupting anything,” Nick says pointedly. 

“Just a misunderstanding,” says Hancock, his tone breezy.

Curie glares at him again. “I will be discussing this with Docteur Davidson at a later date, monsieur. But for now, we have company - please try to represent the Institute with some manner of decorum.” 

“You both work here?” Nora asks. 

Hancock laughs. “I’m not one of the eggheads, if that’s what you’re implying. I lecture philosophy. Unlocking the real mysteries of the universe. You know, the big ones - why are we here? What’s our purpose in life? All that cool shit.”

He lights up a cigarette. Curie looks about ready to poke his eye out. 

“Il est interdit de fumer ici!” she spits out sharply. 

“Ah, French. It rolls off the tongue.”

“We were actually wanting to talk to Doctor Davidson, if he’s around,” says Piper, pulling out a notepad. “Piper Wright, Boston Bugle.”

Curie looks pained. “I see. The press. Docteur Davidson is not in today. He is off sick. Health problems.”

“Nothing too serious, I hope,” says Nick. “Nick Valentine, Boston Police Department.”

“Nick Valentine, as I live and breathe,” says Hancock with a grin. “Remember me?”

“I see you’re still getting in trouble, John,” Nick replies with a roll of his eyes. “I heard you were lecturing. How’s that working out for you?” 

“Not bad, not bad.” He takes a drag of his cigarette. Curie snatches it from his hands, throws it on the ground and extinguishes it in a huff. Hancock shrugs. “Got a pretty sweet deal here - teamed up with the chemistry department here. Helping the good doctor Davidson with some chem testing. Purely in the interests of science, of course.”

“Of course,” says Nora flatly. 

Hancock fixes her with a penetrating stare. His eyes are black, like looking into the void. She can picture him in a tricorn hat, skin deformed, stabbing a man for talking back. 

_”Of the people, for the people, you dig?_

“And who might you be?” 

“Nora Pendleton,” she says. “I’m an attorney.”

“Then I’d better be extra sweet to you,” he says with a flirtatious wink. “A good attorney’s worth their weight in gold - and you’re definitely a good-looking attorney.” 

If Piper rolls her eyes any further, they’re gonna roll right out of her head. Nora can’t help but laugh, though - she always found Hancock’s flirting somewhat endearing. 

“When do you think Doctor Davidson will be in next?” asks Nick. “We’ve got some questions about his robotics research.”

“I can have him call you to arrange an appointment?” says Curie. “He is a very busy man.”

Nick smiles. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

Nora looks around and freezes in her tracks at a photo on the wall of an elderly man with a white beard in a lab coat. Piper notices and gestures at it. “Is that Doctor Davidson in that picture?” 

“Doctor Shaun Davidson,” Nora reads off the plaque at the bottom of the photo. 

Her blood runs cold. 

**MACCREADY**

MacCready took a long drag of his cigarette as he sat in front of the fire with Cait. It was good to be out in the open and not cooped up in the clinic, even if he wasn’t 100% just yet. The day had been a strange combination of satisfying, frustrating and annoying. Satisfying because you’d have to be an idiot to deny that Paladin Danse was an efficient guy. He’d had MacCready draw a map from memory of what he’d found in the vault, grilled him on what he’d found and taken down every single detail to figure out the best approach. Sure, it wasn’t the same as going out there and getting her back, but it was more than he’d been doing. It was something, and it felt good to be working toward a plan. 

Frustrating because he still wasn’t well enough to really do anything - all that was going to get him fighting fit now was time. And annoying because… well, because of Danse. 

Something about the guy just rubbed MacCready up the wrong way. Maybe it was the way he came in and started treating everyone like he was in charge. Maybe it was the way that he looked at MacCready like he was a total freaking idiot. Not to mention the fact that it was pretty darn obvious Danse blamed MacCready for what happened to Nora. 

His gut twisted. _Can’t really argue there,_ he thought to himself. _I blame me too._

“Hey Cait, the detective and the reporter are here!” the guard at the front gate called over. Cait got up. When MacCready made a move to join her, she scowled. 

“Sit your sorry arse _down_ , MacCready. I’ll bring ‘em back here and we can all talk.”

He tried not to roll his eyes. Instead, he threw his cigarette to the ground and stamped out the ember, then pulled a new one from the pocket in his pack. Nora had given him this pack just before they headed into the vault, he remembered with a pang. 

He missed her. He missed her smile, the sound of her voice as she sang along to the radio on her Pip-Boy. He missed making her laugh at his terrible jokes. He missed seeing her in action with the shotgun she loved so much. He missed watching her charm her way into discounts with merchants, barter her way into more money for jobs and generally wrap all the men and most of the women of the Commonwealth around her little finger. He missed following one step behind her and admiring her ass in those road leathers she was so fond of…

_Okay, that’s enough of that. Though it is a damn fine ass._

Cait, Piper and Valentine approached the fire. Piper looked tired and a little worse for wear, whereas Valentine looked more or less the same as usual. Wordlessly, MacCready offered Piper a cigarette, which she took with gratitude. 

“How you holding up, MacCready?” Valentine asked. His voice was gentler than it usually was when addressing him and for some reason, it made MacCready want to break down right then and there.

“I’ve been better,” he replied tersely. Valentine’s expression didn’t change, but MacCready felt bad, so he held the box of cigarettes out to him. “Want one?” 

“Thanks kid,” said Valentine as he took a cigarette. “Now, I know you’ve probably been through this a million times now, but can you tell me exactly what happened down in that damn vault?” 

MacCready sighed. “Figured you’d ask me that question.” He took another drag of his cigarette and launched into the tale from the beginning. He covered everything - his concern that Vault 99 wasn’t on Nora’s Pip-Boy, the terminal that relocked itself, the loungers, the screens. The horrors he’d seen on those screens. The fact that the Mr. Handy had identified Nora as a subject. 

“Oh my god,” said Piper softly as MacCready wrapped up his tale. “Poor Nora. Who knows what she’s going through in there.”

“Or if she’s even still alive,” said Cait darkly, taking a swig of a bottle of whiskey. “Jesus Christ. What if we go down there and all we find is her corpse? I… I don’t know if I could deal with that. She’s me best friend.”

“The people in those loungers were alive,” MacCready insisted. “And they said she was a potential subject. I don’t think they killed her.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Nick agreed. “If only we had more intel as to what Vault 99 was actually for. Until I heard about Nora going there, I’d never even heard of it.”

“That’s because it didn’t officially exist,” a new voice chimed in. 

MacCready turned to see a vaguely familiar figure sitting on a seat a small way away from him. Instinctively, he reached for his sniper rifle, until he realised who it was. 

“Jesus, Deacon, you dramatic son of a bitch,” said Cait snidely. “Why the fuck do you insist on making an entrance?”

“Hey, it’s my job to blend in,” he replied with a smile. “How’s it all going, gang?”

“Go back to the part about Vault 99 not officially existing,” said Nick. He didn’t seem particularly ruffled by Deacon’s entrance - but then again, how could you tell? 

“It’s a funny story,” Deacon began, sitting back on his chair, posture deceptively relaxed. “There were a number of vault numbers that didn’t have vaults assigned. The official story was because they all had to get individual resource consent and not all of the areas could. And yeah, that was the truth for some of them. But among those, there were some that were so secret, even Vault-Tec didn’t know what was going on with them.”

“Considering the stuff Vault-Tec sanctioned, I imagine anything that’s so secret that Vault-Tec had a ‘we don’t wanna know’ policy is pretty nasty,” mused Piper. “Shit.”

“Hard to be 100% sure what’s true and what’s not these days,” Deacon continued, “but all signs point to these ‘secret vaults’ being run to do some really twisted stuff. Back in the pre-war days - and I’m talking pre-pre-war, back when atomic energy was a big deal and before everything started going to hell - there was a lot of money to be made from scientific endeavours. Inventors and scientists had access to plenty of money if they’d made something successful. We’re talking proper geniuses here.”

“And nine times out of ten, with genius comes madness,” Nick deduced. 

Deacon smiled. “You got it, Valentine. Basically we’ve got crazy scientists with crazy amounts of money, even when there’s war and rationing and all that jazz. So when Vault-Tec started and these experiments were being discussed… well, there are people with more money than morals who’ll say ‘hey, give me the test subjects and free reign to do whatever I want, and I’ll give you the big bucks’.”

“What does that mean for Nora?” MacCready demanded. “Do you know what they’re doing to her in there.”

Deacon’s expression remained unreadable behind his ever-present sunglasses but MacCready thought he saw the older man pale slightly. “I don’t. But I’m pretty damn sure it’s nothing good.”

“So tomorrow we go in and we get her the hell out of there,” said MacCready firmly. 

Deacon shakes his head. “We can’t afford to go in guns blazing here. It’s too dangerous. We need proper intel.”

 _Oh no. This is not happening._ “She’s already been there 3 days!” MacCready yelled. “The only thing that was stopping us was that we couldn’t get through the terminal. Now that Nick’s here, we can. So what the hell are we waiting for?”

“We go in there half-cocked and we’re all dead,” Deacon replied firmly. “We all want her safe just as much as you do, but we’ve got to be smart about this.”

“Okay then, Valentine and I can go scope the place out again tomorrow,” said MacCready, equally firmly. “He can get through that door, we can get a better idea of what’s going on.”

“You’re not going anywhere tomorrow,” Cait cut in. “You can’t even walk properly, much less fight.”

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here, but I’m pretty certain that if I got you past that security, you sure as hell wouldn’t be content to leave that vault without her,” Valentine added. “But recon is a good idea. Deacon and I can go tomorrow.”

“Danse is there right now,” Cait pointed out. “He might have some more info for you.”

This was news to MacCready. “He’s WHAT?” 

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Cait snapped. “You’re in no shape to go anywhere and I wasn’t about to stop him. He should be back soon with a ‘mission report’ or some shite.”

“How long ago did he leave?” Piper asked. 

Cait shrugged. “Just before lunch.”

“And it’s how far away?” 

“About a ten minute walk.”

There was a moment of silence as that sunk in. “Alright then,” said Valentine finally, looking at Deacon. “Looks like that recon mission might be happening a little sooner than we thought.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand we might be getting somewhere.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the Automatron DLC here. Just a warning! 
> 
> In other news, I REALLY like writing the whole gang hanging out. Here's a whole chapter of it.

**PIPER**

MacCready was up off his chair in a flash. “If you’re going down there, I’m coming with you.”

Cait snorted. “Like hell you are. I didn’t just spend the last 2 days trying to patch you up for you to go die in a hole. Besides, you can barely walk.”

He shot Cait an indignant look that looked so much like Nat throwing a tantrum that Piper would have smiled under any other circumstances. “I can too.”

“Oh yeah?” Cait challenged. “Run to the guard tower and back.”

The group watched as he ran about three paces and fell flat on his face. 

No one laughed. 

“Well, that’s settled,” said Piper dryly. “Deacon, Nick - do you need anyone else in on this?” 

“I think we should keep this as stealthy as possible,” Deacon comments. “Danse isn’t exactly inconspicuous in that big tin can of his. Probably didn’t help.”

“If Danse has managed to get himself out of action, then we need to go in guns blazing,” Cait insisted. 

“Guns blazing can wait,” Nick said sharply. “Until we get some supplies. If I know Hancock, he’s on his way from Goodneighbor with an arsenal. We need to assess the situation, find out what happened to Danse and get a better plan.”

“Here’s a plan for you,” Cait said stubbornly. “Kill. Some. Fucking. Robots.”

MacCready nodded in approval. 

At Nick’s look, Cait back-tracked. “Present company excluded, of course.” 

Deacon stood up. “Nick, let’s saddle up before we all argue each other to death.” 

“At least let me tag along,” Cait insisted. “My mini-gun and I can take out a few metal men.” 

“And make enough noise to bring them all down on our heads like the hounds of hell,” said Nick sarcastically. “No deal, Cait.”

“Besides, you’re the only one who can keep MacCready from running off and doing something stupid,” Deacon pointed out. 

MacCready scowled. “I’m not an idiot.”

Cait didn’t look happy about it, but she relented. “Fine. But don’t get yourselves killed or dismantled or whatever. Or kidnapped, for that matter. Got an uneasy feeling whatever’s in there’s picking us off one by one.”

“Now that’s a pleasant thought,” said Piper, before finishing the last of her cigarette. 

As Deacon and Nick left, Cait stood up. “Gonna get a pint. Either of you want one?”

“I’d kill for a drink,” MacCready said. He smirked. “Come to think of it, I have.” 

Piper rolled her eyes but smiled. “If you’re buying, Cait, then sure.”

Cait grinned. “Got an in with the bartender. Can get us a good price. But the next round’s on you, Piper.”

“I brought supplies,” said Piper, brandishing her bag. “Bobrov’s Best Moonshine.”

“Hell’s bells.” Cait’s eyes widened. “Screw a pint, I’m going straight for the good stuff if that’s alright by you.”

“Knock yourself out.” Piper pulled out half a dozen bottles and set them in front of her for the group to help themselves. “They were a gift from Vadim. He heard the radio message about Nora and gave them to Nick and I to bring along. Good for morale, he reckoned.”

“Good man,” said MacCready as he opened his bottle. “Thank him for me when you’re back in Diamond City, will ya Piper?”

“Sure thing.” Piper took a sip and grimaced at the familiar rush of the Commonwealth’s strongest brew. 

Cait downed half a bottle like a seasoned pro, then shook her head. “Christ. What a fucking nightmare.”

MacCready winced at the word, blinked and finished his bottle in one fell swoop. He reached for another one, cracked it open and took another swig.

“Whoa there,” said Piper, slightly alarmed. “You might wanna slow it down there, MacCready.”

He laughed bitterly. “If there’s ever a situation that calls for ridiculous amounts of Bobrov’s Best Moonshine, it’s this one. Other people are out there, doing something to save her and I’m just sitting here in front of a fire. I’ve only ever felt more useless once before in my damned life, and that’s when ferals ripped my wife to pieces in front of me.”

Piper felt her stomach lurch at the thought. “MacCready. I’m so sorry.”

“I managed to save our son, but I couldn’t save her,” he continued. Piper wasn’t sure if he really realised he was saying all of this out loud. She exchanged a look with Cait, who looked stricken. “And here I am, all over again. Nora saved my son and I can’t save her.”

“You said it yourself that she’s not dead,” Cait said gently. “You can’t give up on her now.”

“Being stuck in your worst nightmares. Is that worse than being dead?” He took another swig. “I never told Nora this, but I put a bullet between Lucy’s eyes. They were ripping her to pieces in front of me, there was no way she was going to survive, there was no way I could save her. So I did the only thing I could. I took away the pain. Then I ran away with Duncan.” 

“Jesus,” said Piper softly. 

“That’s what I’m most afraid of,” he continued, almost as if the two of them weren’t there. Almost as if he were saying this to himself. “That she’ll be so far gone, there’ll be no way to save her. And one of us will have to make the call. To take the pain away. I… I can’t be responsible for that. Not again.”

“You did what you had to do,” Cait assured him gently. “If it were me… well, I’d rather go from a bullet in the head than being ripped apart. It was mercy.”

In the moonlight, Piper got a glimpse of MacCready’s eyes - full of sorrow and self-loathing. Her heart ached in sympathy. “Yeah, well, does it even matter at the end of the day?”

“It does,” Piper said strongly. “I think it does, anyway.”

MacCready shrugged, then stood up abruptly. “Heading to the bar,” he announced. “What do you guys want? Beer? Vodka?”

“How about a Nuka Cola?” Piper suggested. “Round of Nuka Cola for all of us, maybe?”

He shrugged again. “I’ll get you a Nuka Cola if you want. I’m having whiskey. Be right back.”

Cait handed a walking cane. His expression darkened, but he wordlessly took it and hobbled toward the bar. Piper turned to Cait and let out a low whistle. 

“He’s in pretty bad shape, huh?”

Cait nodded. “He’s a mess. He really loves her, you know.”

“She’s easy to love,” said Piper simply. “Did you know about his dead wife?”

“I had an inkling, but I didn’t know for certain.” Cait took a sip of her drink. “I knew he’d seen some shite. Haven’t we all.”

Piper took a deep breath. “He gonna be alright, if… well, if Nora…”

Cait looked at her sharply. “Don’t even think that.”

They heard the cocking of weapons at the front guard, then the creaking open of the gate. Piper stood up to see a small swarm of people come through the gates, led by Hancock, who smiled as he caught sight of them. 

“Piper and Cait, two of the most beautiful women in the whole damn Commonwealth, here to greet me after a long journey? Must be my lucky day,” he announced as he approached. “Fancy seeing you ladies here.”

“Took your time,” Cait said, her tone teasing. “If you’d been any longer we might have been tempted to start the fun without ya.”

“Hey, things go a little slower when you’re stuck with a pack brahmin,” he defended himself before taking the seat MacCready had recently vacated. “Bobrov’s finest. Mind if I indulge?”

“As far as I can tell, you’ve been indulging the entire trip,” said Preston as he approached. “I don’t know how you do it. Piper, Cait, nice to see you.”

Hancock held out a bottle of Bobrov’s to Preston. “Want one?” 

He shook his head. “Bobrov’s and I don’t see always see eye to eye. I’ll head to the bar - I think I remember where it is.”

“Who else is with you?” Piper asked. “You seem to have collected an army.”

Hancock shrugged. “Eh, it’s less impressive than it looks. Caught up with one of the caravans who were heading here anyway, so we all just traveled together. Big group means raiders are less likely to fuck with us. We caught up with Preston at Oberland Station - Preston was helping them out with some new defences when he heard so he’s done most of the rallying from there. Then we swung by for Curie at Greygarden - she’s been helping bridge the trust gap between the human settlers and the robots there. It’s been a whole thing, I don’t know. Nora’s got all sorts of wacky ideas with these settlements, I don’t know how she keeps it all together.”

An uncomfortable silence fell at the mention of Nora’s name for a moment, until Hancock cleared his throat. 

“Geez, I didn’t mean to bring the mood down. Now can someone fill me in a bit more on what we’re dealing with?” 

“Maybe wait til we’ve got everyone here,” Cait suggested. “It’s not the kind of story that bears repeating.” She took a sip of her drink, looking thoughtful. “Do we have everyone now? What about Strong?” 

“Strong is at Sanctuary,” said Preston. Piper hadn’t even heard him approach. She looked over to see MacCready sitting at the bar, downing drink after drink. She winced. He wasn’t going to appreciate that in the morning, but she hadn’t the heart to cut him off just yet. _Better keep an eye on him…_

“He not wanna come?” asked Cait, narrowing her eyes. 

Preston laughed. “Oh no, he wanted to come. It’s just that I figured we’d need to set up shop here at Sunshine Tidings for awhile and I’ve only just managed to get the folks at Sanctuary used to him. Plus, I figured a supermutant in a vault gets a bit crowded. Sturges managed to convince him to stay put - but he did send some weapons down with a caravan that should arrive tomorrow. And some meat.” 

Cait snorted. “Of course he did.”

“Codsworth and Dogmeat are staying put in Sanctuary as well,” Preston added. “Codsworth wasn’t too pleased about it, but we really needed him up there to keep things running. Mary who usually runs the clinic is pregnant and Codsworth has been invaluable in looking after her and keeping the clinic going strong. And I didn’t want to risk Dogmeat getting hurt, though I’m pretty sure if he knew what was going on he’d want to be here. So I think that’s everyone accounted for.”

“Should Monsieur MacCready be drinking so much?” Curie asked as she approached. “He was very injured recently, no? It is not good for healing to be drinking so much. I will go talk to him.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Piper said hurriedly. “Just… he’s having a hard time dealing with all of this. One night of drinking himself blind isn’t going to kill him.”

Curie didn’t look particularly convinced but sat down next to Piper nonetheless. “I would very much like to hear more about this vault,” she said. “And what we will do to help Nora.”

Piper and Cait exchanged a look. Cait shrugged. “Guess it’s my turn to tell the whole sordid tale, then.”

Hearing the tale again didn’t sound super appealing. “I’ll go check on MacCready,” Piper announced, standing up and heading toward the bar. 

“Hey Lara, how’s it going?” 

Lara the bartender shrugged. “Same old, same old.” She gestured at MacCready, sitting on the bar stool. “Think I’d better cut this one off, though.”

MacCready snorted and raised his glass. “Hey, if I got the caps, you got the booze, right?” With that, he finished the rest of his drink. 

Piper sighed. “I got this.” She sat down on the stool next to him. “You probably shouldn’t be drinking this much while you’re still healing. We’ve got to get you well so we can all get Nora back.”

MacCready looked down. “You’d be better off going without me. It’s pretty obvious I’m fucking useless.”

“MacCready…”

“I’m serious. I was right there with her in that vault and they took her and I did nothing about it! Couldn’t pick the lock, couldn’t hack the terminal - couldn’t do any of the stuff that mattered right then. Couldn’t save her. I couldn’t save Nora like I couldn’t save Lucy.”

“Stop that right now,” said Piper sternly. “You feeling sorry for yourself isn’t helping anyone. I know this sucks and I know you’re upset, but this isn’t the way to go about it. We’ve gotten almost everyone here to help and with all of us working together, it’s going to be alright. It has to be. You’re not the only one who cares about her, you know.”

MacCready snorted again. “I know I’m not the only one who cares about her. Nora’s amazing - she’s so…” he hiccuped and continued “so easy to care about. She’s kind and she’s brave and she’s strong, and she makes this entire fucking place _better_ just by being here. And even though she’s so much better than me, she cares about me, for some stupid reason. She cares about me enough to fight through ferals to get a cure for my sick son. She saved him. She saved me. And if I lose her…”

“You’re not going to lose her,” Piper said with determination. “Not if I can help it. Now come on, I think you’ve had enough.”

MacCready looked at her blankly for a moment, then nodded and stood up, extremely shakily. He fumbled around through his pockets for a few moments. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Looking for caps.”

Lara rolls her eyes. “You paid me upfront, MacCready.”

MacCready looked at the bartender with a scathing look. “Not for _you_. I need to put some caps aside for _Duncan_. Because of the _swears_.”

Piper willed herself not to laugh as she helped him toward the bunkhouse. Once she had him settled, she headed back to the campfire, to find it a hub of activity. She could hear Curie’s voice as she approached. 

“It looks like there is a concussion. He will need to be kept under observation for the next few hours. No questions until he is more well.”

She could barely recognise the Paladin out of armor. He was definitely looking worse for wear. Deacon was wearing the Paladin’s armor, and he and Nick were dealing with the wrath of a furious Cait. 

“If he’s going to go off and be a hero, he better damn well have something we can use to get back in there!” 

“He was barely responsive when we got to the entrance of the vault,” Nick replied. “All he said was they told him he didn’t have the right kind of brain.”

“Took all we had to get him back here,” Deacon added. “Getting him out of this power armor… let’s just say it wasn’t nearly as erotic as that sentence sounds.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Deacon.”

“Managed to carry him back in his own hunk of metal. I think this is a good look for me, though. What do you think, Piper?” 

“If you’re quite finished,” Nick said with noticeable exasperation, “we need to let the man rest. We can talk in the morning. Everyone here with a body that needs sleep needs to go do that.” 

“Can’t argue with that,” Piper muttered, realizing then just how late it was. “We’re not use to Nora exhausted.”

“Agreed,” said Preston. “Cait, are there enough beds in the bunkhouse?” 

“Build some new beds meself when we were waiting for you lot to show up,” Cait assured him. “Plenty to go around.”

“Thank you, Cait.”

Cait’s eyes flashed with something akin to sorrow. “You can thank me with a pint when we get Nora back safe.”

They reconvened the next morning over breakfast, all eight of them. Curie was fussing over Danse, who was sporting an impressive looking black eye and a scowl. Hancock inhaled a canister of jet and sighed happily. Nick lit a cigarette, then passed the packet to Piper, who took one and passed it on to a hungover MacCready. Cait wordlessly handed MacCready a glass of something a dark reddish purple. 

“What is this?” he asked. 

Cait grinned. “Hangover cure.”

“And what’s in it?”

“Tato juice, some mutfruit, a mirelurk egg and you don’t wanna know.”

MacCready made a face. “I’ll pass.”

“Lara made it for you specially,” said Cait. “She was nice enough to not kick you off your barstool last night and she promises it ain’t gonna hurt you. Drink the damn thing.”

MacCready pouted, but obliged, screwing up his face in absolute disgust. “F-freaking heck, that’s foul!”

Preston handed him a can of purified water, which he downed straight away. Cait practically cackled with laughter. Once he’d finished the water, he looked… well, he seemed to have more color in his face, that was for sure. 

“Do you feel better, at least?” Piper asked. 

MacCready looked like he wanted to protest, then deflated. “Yeah. Remind me to thank Lara later.”

“Can we get on with it?” Danse said snidely. “I’ve got information to report from my recon mission.”

“Your unsuccesful recon mission, you mean,” said Cait, her tone equally snide. “The one you had to be rescued from by Nicky and Deacon here.”

“Yes, well, I still have valuable intel,” Danse continued, though Piper could swear he was blushing. “As MacCready told us, there’s only one entrance into that part of the vault. I tried all the other options and no dice. So I tried to shoot the door down.”

Piper’s eyebrows raised. “You tried to _shoot the door down_? _That_ was your plan?”

“I figured it would get a response,” said Danse, clearly fighting to not look guilty. “And it did. The door opened and I was attacked by at least a dozen robots - Protectrons, Mr. Handys and a number of Robobrains. All extremely formidable opponents. But they didn’t seem to want to kill me, per say - I was scanned by a Mr. Handy, who said that my brain wasn’t compatible, which I suppose is a mercy. They pushed me out into the entrance of the vault and knocked me unconscious. I managed to take out 2 Protectrons before they knocked me out, though.”

MacCready’s mouth twitched into a smirk. “I took out 4.”

Danse ignored him. “The next thing I remember is Valentine and Deacon helping me back to the settlement.”

“You mean carrying you back to the settlement.”

Piper shot MacCready a silencing glare. “Not helping.”

“So we’re fighting robots,” said Deacon cheerfully. “Alright then. I’m guessing plasma weaponry’s our best bet. You bring any plasma rifles in that haul of yours, Hancock?”

Hancock nodded. “You better believe it. KL-E-O got me outfitted good and Daisy gave us all the ammo she could spare.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, before I forget, Daisy gave me a letter for you, MacCready.”

MacCready’s head shot up. “Really?” 

Hancock nodded. “Sure thing. Got it right here.” He pulled the envelope out of his jacket and handed it to MacCready, who ripped it open eagerly. As he read, he broke into a wide grin. 

“Duncan’s walking again!” he exclaimed. “The cure’s still holding up! I have to tell Nora-”

An uncomfortable silence broke across the assembled group. MacCready’s face turned pale and he shoved the letter in his pocket, looking at the ground. 

“I’m glad to hear about your kid,” Cait said softly. “We’ll tell Nora soon.”

“Robots,” said Piper, louder than necessary to break the tension. “Fighting robots. What else do we need?”

“Well, preferably, more robots,” Nick said sarcastically. “Considering the majority of us are made of flesh and blood, we’re at an automatic disadvantage. Anyone happen to have a robot army lying around?”

“Lieutenant Garvey, there’s something you should see at the front gate!” the guard called over. 

The group all hurried over to the gate to see something no one had expected. 

“Well, I’ll be damned,” said Hancock with a grin. “Let’s see if that works again. Anyone happen to have a million caps lying around?” 

A nervous-looking, dark-haired teenager stood there, surrounded by an army of yellow painted robots. “I heard the radio broadcast about Nora and thought I could help,” she said, her voice shaky. “I’m Isabel. Isabel Cruz. Nora helped me with... something and I owe her so much, so I thought I’d come help. And I brought reinforcements. And some schematics - if you’ve got scrap metal around, I can build more robots. If that’s gonna be useful. I don’t know what you’re dealing with, but I’m here to help if I can.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, which was shattered by MacCready cracking up with laughter. The entire group turned to look at him and he grinned. 

“Sorry, I just realised what this is.”

“And what’s that?” asked Cait.

He grinned even wider. “This, my friends, is a classic case of Deus Ex Mechanist.”

Piper wasn’t sure what was louder - Deacon’s laughter or Nick’s groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, I did decide to incorporate this character solely for that terrible, terrible joke. I'm so sorry.
> 
> (I'm not sorry).


	8. Chapter 8

**NORA**

Nora can tell that Nick’s getting more and more frustrated - every time he tries to arrange a meeting with Doctor Davidson, he ends up very politely but very firmly rebuffed. He’s busy with sensitive projects and can’t be disturbed. He’s undergoing medical treatment and can’t be contacted. It seems to Nora that Nick and Piper are letting it get under their skin more than she is - they’re both on edge, smoking more than usual, wired and tense. As for Nora, she just can’t shake the feeling that she knows how this story ends - and it’s nowhere good. 

The flashes of the life she never lived keep coming and going and she does her best not to let them shake her. It’s hard to deal with the concern on Nate’s face every time he catches her having what he very diplomatically calls ‘a moment’, and it’s even harder not to be frustrated at her husband. Try as she might, even though she’s had time to wrap her head around the situation (how long has it been?), she still bristles at what her husband and her doctor say the cause of this condition was. 

She remembers the vault. She remembers seeing the bombs falling, that bright flash of light as the elevator took them underground. Except they tell her it was a false alarm. And it must have been, because this world is pristine. 

(Sometimes she finds herself turning on the tap, filling a glass with clean water and just looking at it. _This is a luxury,_ a part of her screams. _Don’t take this for granted. It’s clean, it’s free of radiation. It can save lives._ )

The doctor tells her that this condition, her response to 24 stressful hours in a vault thinking that the world as she knew it was ending, is completely understandable. After all, she’s never experienced the horrors of war firsthand. That experience was frightening to her and it’s taken its toll on her psyche. It’s nothing to be ashamed of - other people have had similar experiences.

“It doesn’t make you weak,” Nate assures her when she tries to explain why it bothers her. “It’s just how it is. I wish it weren’t happening but don’t even think it’s because you’re weak.”

That makes her furious, for reasons she really can’t explain to her husband. She fought Deathclaws and ripped them to shreds with a minigun, mere hours after crawling out of the ice and into a terrifying new world. She stood on the top of crumbling concrete walls with a missile launcher and a pocketful of grenades, launching missile after missile into a Mirelurk Queen. She smashed a radscorpion to bits with a sledgehammer in a Psycho-fueled rage when she found herself desperate and out of ammo. 

She sure as hell isn’t weak and she _knows_ it, deep in her bones. Even though she knows in her head she can’t have done any of those things, her gut still tells her that she could. And it’s furious that her husband could believe that just the possibility of the world ending would be enough to crack her resolve. 

Nora stops herself from telling Nate this. Takes a deep breath. Looks at him - really looks at him - and sees how worried he is. Remembers the look on his face every time she has one of her ‘moments’. She could always read Nate like a book - he doesn’t say it, but she knows he’s afraid he’s losing her. 

Whether it’s real or not, she remembers what it felt like to lose _him_. The fury drains out of her, like air from a balloon. 

They don’t talk about it again. 

One morning, she walks into the living room to find Nate deep in conversation with a dark-skinned man. He shakes her hand and introduces himself as Preston Garvey. 

“I live a few houses down the road,” he says by way of explanation. “I’m trying to get a proper neighborhood watch together. These are hard times but if we stick together and look out for one another, things are going to be alright.” 

She remembers seeing him on the balcony of the Museum of Freedom, calling for her help. She remembers picking up a laser musket and killing raiders. She remembers getting into power armor, ripping a minigun off a vertibird and leading Preston and his group of settlers to Sanctuary. Not to mention the Deathclaw. 

Nora helps Codsworth make coffee for their guest to take her mind off the smell of laser fire. 

Preston, it seems, has heard from the other neighbors that Nate is a talented marksman. They’re discussing doing some basic firearm safety training with the neighborhood watch. Nate is glad to help, unsurprisingly, and the two men seem to hit it off rather well. 

They go to the shooting range for practice - Nate, Nora, Preston and a group of their neighbors. Nate is in his element, giving pointers and improving technique, and she remembers back to when they had just gotten engaged and he gave her gun-handling lessons. 

“Safety’s the most important thing,” says Nate, showing her how to load the gun. “I know it’s easy to get your hands on a gun but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful. Keep your firearms in a safe place. Keep them clean. Keep them well maintained.”

God, if he could see her backpack full of guns now. Hauling weapons, armor, ammo, chems and all sorts of junk all over the Commonwealth doesn’t exactly lend itself to an organised filing system. But that’s just how it is out there. There’s not much Nora can do about it. At least in her settlements and in her home in Diamond City, she makes sure everything’s stored as safely as possible. 

_“You gotta focus on your breathing,” says MacCready. They’re sitting on the roof of Home Plate and he’s showing her the basics of sniping. “It’ll affect where the shot goes. This is a whole different ballgame to your usual ‘spray and pray’ technique but it’s definitely more efficient - I could take out a supermutant at 300 miles if I had a good line of sight.”_

_Nora rolls her eyes, takes a swig of Bobrov’s Best then passes him the bottle. “I think I’ll leave the sniping to you. I’m more of a ‘run into the action with a shotgun’ kinda gal.”_

_MacCready glares at her. “That’s what I’m worried about. One of these days you’re going to get yourself killed.”_

_She laughs. “No, I won’t. I’ve got the best shot in the damn Commonwealth at my back. No way anyone’s getting rid of me that easily.”_

_He smirks. “Damn - er, darn right I’m the best.” He downs a few gulps of Bobrov’s, then passes it back to Nora. Their hands touch as he does. He stops for a moment and looks at her intently. “It’s true, you know.”_

_Nora bites her lip. “What’s true?”_

_“That I’ve got your back,” he says seriously. “It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let anything bad happen to you.”_

_Her cheeks turn pink. So do his. She drinks the last of the moonshine and smiles at him softly._

_Together, they watch the stars._

Nora looks in the mirror. It’s an unnerving experience. Not because she looks bad - no, she’s cleaned up pretty well for the evening ahead. Dark hair pinned in an elaborate updo. Perfectly applied makeup. A slinky red cocktail dress and heels. Yeah, she looks pretty damn good, actually. 

But looking in the mirror still doesn’t feel right. Seeing herself clean, healthy and dressed to the nines still doesn’t make sense. 

_You need to pull yourself together_ , she thinks to herself sternly. _You can’t let these episodes get in the way of things tonight. You don’t want to embarrass Nate._

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” 

Nora turns away from the mirror to see Nate in impeccably presented dress uniform. God, he looks good. “I could say the same to you,” she replies. 

He wraps his arms around her and kisses her deeply. She leans into his embrace and lets herself enjoy the moment. Nate is warm and strong and so, so alive. Tonight’s a big night for him - he’s giving a speech at the Veteran’s Hall in Concord. It’s a huge honor to be asked to speak and she couldn’t be prouder. 

_But we’ve been here before. He was supposed to give a speech the day the bombs fell. He never got there. He never got any further than that cryo pod._

It’s suddenly cold. She shivers. He rubs her shoulders and looks at her, concerned. 

“You alright, sweetheart?” 

She smiles. “I’m fine. Just… a moment, that’s all.”

He frowns. “We really should schedule another doctor’s appointment,” he says softly. “You seem to be having these ‘moments’ more often. I’m worried about you.”

“I’m _fine_ ,” she assures him. “You don’t need to worry, I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can. You’re an amazing woman, Nora - you’re strong, you’re resilient. These past few years have been hard, I know, but you’re not alone in all of this. I’m here for you - I’m here _with_ you. Every step of the way.”

And oh, how she wishes he was. If he’d been the one to survive, maybe he’d have found Shaun quicker. Maybe he’d have gotten out of the pod earlier, saved Shaun when he was still a child. Nate’s the one whose strong and resilient. She’s just a helpless relic who somehow managed to convince a ragtag bunch of misfits that she was worth following around. 

_Not today, Nora. You can’t think like that today. You can’t be crazy today. It’s too important._

The doorbell rings. Nate kisses her on the head. “That’s probably Robert. I’ll make sure Shaun’s got everything, can you grab the door?”

Her heart’s pounding all of a sudden and her reaction makes her feel even guiltier. There’s Nate, the perfect husband, dealing with her insanity and loving her anyway, but one mention of her son’s best friend’s father and she’s blushing like a teenager. 

She opens the front door. Duncan’s bouncing with barely contained excitement. “Hi Shaun’s mom! Is Shaun ready to come to my house?” 

“Shaun’s dad is just helping him get ready,” she tells him. “Do you want to go see how he’s doing?” 

Duncan tears into the house and makes a beeline for Shaun’s room. Nora moves to let Robert come in. He’s casually dressed in jeans and a sweater and looks weirdly at home in her living room. She swallows nervously. 

“Thanks for agreeing to take Shaun for the night.” She smoothes out non-existent wrinkles in her dress. “We really appreciate you doing this for us.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” he replies easily. “Duncan’s been looking forward to this all week.” He smiles. “You look lovely, Nora.”

She blushes. “Thank you.”

“Big night for you and Nate then, huh?” There’s something in the tone of his voice that makes her stop for a moment. Nostalgia? Jealousy? Sorrow? 

“Big night,” she agrees. And then, because she can’t help herself, she asks. “I keep meaning to ask - Duncan’s mom, is she around?” 

Robert shakes his head. “No, she… my wife Lucy died a few years back. When Duncan was barely a year old.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He shoves his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, me too. I miss her.” As if trying to shake off the negative conversation, he takes a deep breath. “I’m glad you and Nate are getting a chance to have a night to yourselves. You’ve got to hold on to the people you love.”

She doesn’t know why she says what she says next. “Sometimes you need to let go, too.”

Robert looks at her, his expression soft. He takes a step toward her and reaches out his hand. She takes it without a moment’s hesitation. 

_A starlight night. The smell of roasting meat, gun oil and smoke. The lingering smell and taste of moonshine._

_“For what it’s worth, I think you’re brave.”_

“Daddy, look at Shaun’s backpack! It has Grognak on it! That’s so cool, I want one! Can I have one?” 

Nora pulls her hand away and looks over as Duncan and Shaun run back into the living room, Nate following close behind. As handsome as ever. 

_I love you, Nate. I love you so much. In my memories, you’re always with me - strong and patient and handsome and brave. I will always, always love you. You always told me I had such a big heart, my love. I know you’d understand that it’s big enough to love you and to love him as well._

The thoughts don’t make sense. She can’t be thinking like that. Not tonight. 

The Veteran’s Hall is bustling, full of people in their finery. Men and women in pristine dress uniforms with a liberal smattering of civilians in cocktail dresses and tuxedos. A waiter hands Nora and Nate each a glass of champagne. She takes a delicate sip and tries to remember how they got here. 

She can’t, but she’s not about to mention that to Nate tonight. 

“Sergeant Pendleton.” Nora starts at the familiar voice and turns to see Paladin Danse. He looks confident and polished in the same uniform as Nate and smiles at her politely. “This must be your wife.”

“I keep forgetting you’ve never met,” says Nate apologetically. “Nora, this is Sergeant Danse. We served together in the 108th and reconnected after the war. You remember, he gives me a ride to the office in the morning - we work in the same building.”

“Nice to meet you,” says Nora. They shake hands. His handshake is exceptionally strong - like steel. 

“I’m looking forward to your address,” says Danse to Nate. “You always did have a way with words.”

“Cross your fingers that I don’t say anything completely ridiculous,” Nate replies with a chuckle. “Or curse in front of all these people.”

_“You stuck your neck out for me and I don’t forget shit - er, I mean things like that.”_

_They’ve been travelling for long enough for her to have definitely picked up on MacCready’s ‘no swearing’ policy. Nora would never admit it, but she thought it was kind of cute. Still, she was definitely curious. ”You should try cursing once in a while,” she comments. “It’s good for the soul.”_

_MacCready laughs. “Oh believe me, I know. It’s not about you, it’s about a promise I made.”_

**Interesting.**

Nora freezes and looks around the room, trying to identify the source of the voice. 

**_Very_ interesting. I’d have thought you’d relish the opportunity to slot back into your pre-war life, Nora Pendleton. Be with your husband and son again. And yet, you keep going back to your wasteland life. To your friends. To the people you care about. This is utterly fascinating.**

No one else is reacting to the voice. Nate looks worried, but Danse hasn’t seemed to pick up on anything weird - or if he has, he’s too polite to say anything. 

“You alright, honey?” Nate puts his arm around her reassuringly. 

She smiles. “I’m fine, sweetheart. You’re gonna knock it out of the water.” 

**I can see that part of you does want to be here. But you’ve got a strong mind - stronger than most I’ve encountered. You know this isn’t real. And more than that… you’ve got something anchoring you to reality.**

_”It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let anything bad happen to you.”_

“Looks like they’re ready for you,” Danse says to Nate, gesturing at a man standing by the podium trying to capture Nate’s attention. 

Nate leans down to kiss Nora on the cheek, then turns to Danse. “Do you mind keeping my wife company?” 

“Not at all,” the Paladin replies easily. “Good luck.”

**All those people you’ve met in your travels. They’re important to you. So important, you’re slotting them into this reality. I’ve never seen anything quite like it - well done, Nora Pendleton. You’re a remarkable woman.**

 **I think we'll try something... different with you.**

She’s sitting in her living room, holding Shaun. Shaun as a baby. Nate is sitting next to her. Codsworth is in the kitchen, busying himself with housework. 

There’s a blinding light. A blinding heat. The bombs. They’re falling again. 

She looks down at her baby and screams as he dissolves into a pile of ash. 

“Shaun!”

Nora turns to Nate and screams again. His skin is melting off. Blood pours out of his eyes, his ears. 

“Keep Shaun safe!” says Nate in the seconds before his body collapses into a pile of bones and viscera. 

The world around her swirls in a sickly green. She’s caught in a radstorm. She can’t find her son. She screams and collapses on the ground as the world turns a harsh, painful white. 

She opens her eyes groggily to see a ceiling and a Mr. Handy hovering over her. 

“Codsworth?” 

Suddenly she feels a needle in her neck. And then, she’s plunged straight into hell.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: The Nora section is getting a little horrific and disturbing. TW for potentially disturbing imagery.

CHAPTER 9

**MACCREADY**  
MacCready had to admit, The Mechanist aka Isabel Cruz did quick work. She’d asked them all to call her ‘just Isabel’, which he figured was fair enough. He hadn’t been there when Nora had managed to talk her down from the whole vigilante thing but he’d heard the story over a couple of beers afterward and whoa boy, was that a doozy. 

At first he’d been a little pissed that she’d gotten away more or less scot free, especially after meeting some of her robots in their travels - those things meant business. But then he actually met her a few weeks later and realised just how _young_ she was. And really, Nora was all about second chances, wasn’t she? She was willing to make hard choices when she needed to, but she tended to be more diplomatic than MacCready himself would ever be. 

And heck, people could argue that after what he’d done with the Gunners, MacCready didn’t deserve any second chances. But here he was, running around with the leader of the Commonwealth Minutemen. Making people’s lives better. He’d got a second chance to make something of himself, thanks to her. He couldn’t begrudge her giving one to anybody else. 

(He thought about the look on Nora’s face when she returned from the Institute and told him her son was dead. There wouldn’t be any second chances for them.)

Within an hour of her arrival, Isabel had put together a workbench and built 3 more eyebots. “These little guys are a bit cruder than I’d usually build,” she explained, “but they’re not long for this world anyway. From what you’re saying about that vault, we’re fighting fire with fire - if all goes according to plan, these guy will get in there and explode, letting off a pulse that should hopefully deactivate anything else robotic in there. That should definitely give us an edge - and since it’s targeting robots rather than people, it shouldn’t hurt Nora. I hope.”

MacCready raises his eyebrows. “You _hope_?”

Isabel looked defiant. “I’m 70% sure it won’t hurt Nora,” she said firmly. “If I had another week or so, I could probably that up to 80 or 90 percent. But from what you guys have told me, we don’t have that kind of time.”

MacCready sighed. “You’re right. We don’t. Sorry, Isabel - I’m a little on edge.”

Isabel blushed. “Of course you are. It must be really hard, having her in danger like this. I’m sorry you have to go through it - I can’t imagine having someone you love like that going through something like this.”

It was his turn to blush. “We’re not - I mean, she’s not… she’s married, and we’re friends, and… I _was_ married, and…” MacCready took a deep breath and lied through his teeth. “I’ve never thought of her like that.”

Isabel’s eyes widened. “Oh! I’m sorry, I was sure you two were… you know…”

“In completely denial about their own feelings?” Piper interjected, having come in on the tail end of the conversation without MacCready even noticing. “Trust me, you’ve got their number here.”

Isabel looked between the two of them for a long moment, before blushing more and going back to her work. “Nora’s amazing,” she said quietly. “I can totally understand falling in love with her. She’s kind and caring and… really pretty.”

MacCready didn’t think ‘really pretty’ covered it when it comes to Nora. Pretty seems reductive. Nora was a force of nature, a study in contradictions. Sometimes she was a relic from another time, sometimes she was so at home in the wasteland that he’d forget where she came from. She’d run into a fight with her trusty shotgun and slaughter raiders, super mutants and ferals like she’s bringing down the fires of hell on them, emerging covered in guts and gore and blood and sweat. But she carried plates and cutlery around with her so when they stop to eat, they can hang on to a bit of civilisation (so she said). She’d charm merchants into discounts with a sweet smile and honeyed words, all the time taking caps from their pockets in broad daylight with no one noticing. Yet she had more integrity than anyone he knew. 

Of course she was ‘pretty’. More than pretty, she was beautiful, the way you didn’t find anywhere else in the wasteland. It never ceased to amaze him how she’d blend in and stand out at the same time. There wasn’t anyone else like Nora anywhere else. She was different to anyone he’d ever met. And he wouldn’t have her any other way. 

Not that he had her. Not that he’d ever deserve to have her, despite what everyone else seemed to think. She was definitely, definitely too good for the likes of him. 

_She’d tear you a new one if she heard you talking like that_ , a voice in his head taunted. _She believes in you, MacCready. So you’d better rip the world apart to get her back. You know she’d do the same for you._

“Looks like we’ve got some more supplies coming in,” Piper commented, looking toward the front gate where 2 caravans were entering the settlement. “Gavin at the gate said they weren’t expecting their usual provisioners for a couple more days, so these might be for Nora.” Her lips curved into a smirk. “She’s made a lot of friends.”

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one,” Nick chimed in. He and Deacon had been helping Isabel put eyebots together as the morning progressed - she figured the more the better, considering what both MacCready and Danse had reported from the vault. Nearby, Hancock and Cait were taking stock of the stash from K-L-EO Hancock had brought from Goodneighbor. MacCready was helping clean and inspect weapons and Piper was reinforcing armor at the armor workbench. Curie was putting together field medic supplies and keeping an eye on Danse - thanks to his power armor, he wasn’t in as bad shape as MacCready had been, but he wasn’t at his best and he _definitely_ wasn’t happy about it. 

MacCready was pretty sure that if Danse were feeling better, he’d be bossing them around in true Brotherhood fashion. Heck, he was kind of surprised he wasn’t bossing them around anyway - must be Curie’s influence. (For some reason, despite being vocal about his hatred of synths, ghouls, super mutants and other abominations, Danse had never said a negative word to Curie. Then again, being mean to Curie was like kicking Dogmeat - you’d have to be a real jerk to think either action was okay.)

Instead of Danse playing drill sergeant, Preston had stepped in to oversee things. Probably the best option, if MacCready were being honest with himself. He didn’t always _get_ Preston, or the entire Minutemen cause. The Commonwealth was dog-eat-dog and looking out for yourself and those you care about was the only way to get anywhere, as far as MacCready was concerned. Preston had a dream to bring the Commonwealth together. To create a community where people aren’t just out for themselves. Noble, yeah, but MacCready had his doubts. 

When he ran with the Gunners, he wasn’t at the Quincy Massacre but he heard them bragging about it afterward. That was when he’d decided he needed out - always those innocent people, slaughtered. Children, slaughtered. Sometimes MacCready felt like Preston saw those people’s blood on his hands, every time he looked at him. They got along well enough, but at the end of the day, they were two very different men with very different priorities. It wasn’t surprising that they didn’t always see eye to eye. 

Yet there he was, running around from settlement to settlement with the General of the Minutemen - building defences, fighting off raiders, rescuing kidnapped settlers (why was there so much kidnapping?) and even doing a spot of gardening. He might not believe in their cause, but he did believe in Nora. And Nora… well, Nora just needed _something_ to believe in. 

_Nora believes in you,_ part of him insisted. _She believes you’ve got her back. That you’ll help her when she needs it._

They broke for lunch and cooked up the meat that had been sent by Strong in the supply run from Sanctuary that had just arrived, sharing it around between them. The atmosphere was tense - a hell of a fight was brewing and they knew it. 

“So where are we at?” Nick asked finally, voicing the question on everyone’s lips. “Are we ready to go?” 

Preston looked at Isabel. “Your bots ready?”

She nodded. “They are. Here’s hoping they’ll level the playing field. I’m not much of a fighter, but if I can get close enough to any of the robots that aren’t taken out by the bots, I can hack them to shut down or self-destruct.”

“I’ll cover her,” Deacon offered. “Piper, can you get her suited up? We want her as armed as possible if she’s not used to this kind of thing.”

“Sure thing. Blue taught me this awesome trick with ballistic fibre,” Piper said with a grin. “This coat of mine is pretty much bulletproof now.”

Deacon grinned back. “That’d be a Railroad trick we taught her.”

“Huh. No way.” She took a bite of lunch and continued. “Anyway, I’ve got everyone’s armor as good as we can get it, MacCready’s taken care of the weaponry and between Nick and Isabel, there’s no way they’re keeping us out of that place. I think we’re ready to go.”

Danse cleared his throat uncomfortable. “As much as I don’t want to admit this, Curie has… convinced me to look at things logically. Given my current state of injury and the bulkiness of my power armor, I’d be more of a liability than an asset at this point. So I have agreed to stay behind.” 

MacCready’s eyebrows hit his hairline in surprise. Unfortunately, he said the first thing that came to mind. “Does Curie have naked pictures of you or something, Danse?” 

Nick groaned. “Jesus, MacCready.”

Danse looked indignant. “I am prone to logic on occasion. She made her case and I agreed it was the right move.”

MacCready had no idea why this bothered him, but somehow he found himself arguing. “Okay, so don’t do the front lines. You can hang back with Curie and make sure nothing happens to her. Pick off anyone who slips past us. Nora…” his voice caught on her name. He swallowed and continued. “Nora could be in pretty bad shape. Last thing we need is someone taking out our medic. Power armor or not, you’re not to be messed with, even if you’re not at 100%.”

Preston nodded. “Strangely enough, I agree with MacCready on this one. It’s good to have a backup plan.”

Curie pouted. “I am perfectly capable of defending myself in combat. But I have to admit, it would be good to have Monsieur Danse by my side.” 

Danse nodded in agreement, looking pleased but puzzled. Preston nodded. “It’s settled, then. We’ll head off in half an hour. Everyone, take this time to get loaded up, do whatever else you gotta do - we’re well supplied, there should be everything you need here. We’ll meet back here at 1 and head out.” 

As the group separated to prepare, Danse looked over at MacCready quizzically. “I was under the impression that you don’t particularly enjoy my company,” Danse admitted, “but thank you for coming up with a solution to allow me to participate in this mission.”

“We need everyone we can get,” MacCready replied tersely. “It made sense to have you along.” Danse nodded, still looking unconvinced at his reasoning. MacCready sighed. “Sitting around here while the rest of us head off and do something? Wouldn’t wish it on anyone who cares about her. Just do me a favor and don’t get yourself killed.”

Danse laughed and for the first time since they met, MacCready saw the man genuinely smile. “I’d like to see those robotic bastards try.”

**NORA**

She’s in the Glowing Sea. 

At least, she thinks she is. It’s exactly as she remembers it. But it can’t be real. Nothing is real. But she’s still not sure what happened before this. She remembers the people, the places, the things she did - but when did it start? How did she get here?

MacCready. 

She was with MacCready. 

“You’re gonna pick up a serious glow sticking around here.”

Hancock’s coat is blowing in the irradiated wind. He looks at her, black eyes intense from under his tricorn hat. 

This isn’t right. She was never in the Glowing Sea with Hancock. He’d offered, sure, and it would have meant less Rad-X and Radaway, but MacCready had insisted he accompany her. They went in just after Med-Tek, she remembers. She was never in the Glowing Sea with Hancock. 

“Mmm,” says Hancock, with obvious pleasure. “All the rads a Ghoul could ask for.”

“You’re not supposed to be here,” she says warily. “You weren’t here. You can’t be here.”

“You’re no fun, sunshine,” he drawls. It looks like Hancock, sounds like Hancock - talks and dresses like him, but there’s something _not right_. “And you’re not prepared for this at all.”

She looks at her hands. The skin is withering away in front of her. Heat pours through her body. She’s taking too much radiation. 

She’ll die here. 

Hancock growls, an unfamiliar, feral noise. 

Feral. 

She screams as he lunges at her, slicing away at her withering flesh with his teeth and nails. “Gonna rip you apart,” he snarls. 

There’s a crack of a gunshot and he falls to the ground, motionless. Nora screams again and shakes his body. “It’s not him, it’s not him, it’s not really him. It’s not really Hancock. This isn’t real,” she repeats to herself. 

“It’s as real as it gets,” says a familiar voice. 

Nora turns to see Nick Valentine, holding Kellogg’s pistol to her head. Only it’s not Nick. It’s Kellogg, in Nick’s body. 

“Here’s my second chance to put you in the ground,” says ‘Kellogg’. “What an opportunity for a dead man.”

“Nick!” she screams. “Nick, are you in there?” 

There’s a flicker in those yellow eyes, then after an agonisingly long moment, Nick’s back. “What? Oh hell, kid, I’m sorry - why do I have a gun to your head?” Nora bursts into tears and he throws the gun to the ground, then wraps his arms around her comfortingly. 

“Kellogg,” she manages to say between sobs. “He’s still in your head.”

Nick lets go of her as if she’s made of fire. The irradiated winds blow around them insistently. “If he’s still in my head then you’ve got to put me down, Nora,” he says insistently. “You’ve got to kill me.”

Her blood runs cold. “You can’t ask me to do that.”

Nick picks up the gun and holds it to his head. Nora lunges toward him but he pulls away. “I can’t let that maniac loose,” he insists, his voice full of sorrow. “You should never have asked me to let him in. You should never have violated my mind.”

“I’m sorry, Nick, I’m so sorry,” she sobs. “Just put the gun down. We can fix this. We can figure it out. We’ll talk to Amari, we’ll get him out - just… don’t shoot. Please don’t shoot.”

“Sorry Nora,” says Kellogg, putting the gun to her head again. “But you’ve always known you were on borrowed time.”

He shoots. 

Pain bursts through her. 

Nora can hear the sounds of crowds. Feel the heat of stage lights. She can smell booze and piss and puke and sweat. She opens her eyes and freezes. 

She’s at the Combat Zone. 

Cait is coming toward her with a baseball bat, a glazed look in her eye. A look she hasn’t seen in a long time. Her friend is clearly high as a kite on Psycho.

“Cait, don’t do this,” she pleads. 

“It ain’t personal, luv,” says Cait gleefully. “You were the one who volunteered - we’re here to give them a show. Think you can take me?”

Nora’s never thought about it but she’s pretty sure the answer’s no. Not if Cait’s hopped up on Psycho. She goes through her pockets, trying to see if she has any chems to even the playing field. 

“We’re friends, Cait,” she tries to convince her. “We don’t need to fight like this. We don’t need to fight at all.”

Cait sneers. “I ain’t ever seen you before in me life.”

That might hurt even more. “We travelled together for weeks. I took you to Vault 95 to get better. To cure your Psycho addiction. It’s killing you.”

Cait frowns and slowly lowers her bat. “How do you know that? I ain’t told anyone anything like that.”

“I’m your _friend_ ,” Nora pleads. “Please, Cait.” 

The roar of the crowd gets louder and louder and it takes a moment for Nora to realise they’re booing. They came for a fight - they came for blood, and all they can see are two uncomfortable women having a conversation. Cait’s eyes narrow and she hits Nora hard with her baseball bat. Nora sees stars and lashes out in retaliation. She hadn’t even realised she was wearing a Powerfist until it connected with Cait’s jaw. Cait curses loudly, spits out blood then smiles at Nora, teeth bloody. 

“I don’t _have_ friends,” says Cait, right before her baseball bat collides with Nora’s skull. 

Nora goes down. 

She’s falling, falling through blackness - ears ringing, head pounding, skin tingling. She lands with a thump onto a gurney. There’s a bright light, shining directly on her face and she realises in a panic that she can’t move. 

“I’m here for the truth,” says Piper coldly. “The truth about your son. You found him and you abandoned him. After all that effort, all that time, you found him and you left him.”

“I had to,” Nora replies, tears rolling down her cheeks as she struggles against her restraints. “He was raised by the Institute. The Institute has been hurting people. He was an old man - he was their leader! I never got a chance to raise my son and they raised him to be someone who did unspeakable things without even caring.”

“Do you even have a heart, Nora Pendleton?” asks Piper. 

But it’s not Piper. It can’t be Piper. Piper would never be so cold, so cruel. Just like it wasn’t Hancock who ripped her apart. It wasn’t Nick who shot her in the head. It wasn’t Cait who bashed her skull in. 

This. Isn’t. Real. 

“Piper, please,” Nora begs. 

“I have an obligation to the truth,” says Piper intently. She lights a cigarette and smokes it, staring at her intently. Out of the shadows, a faceless figure comes out in a full jumpsuit and face mask, holding a bonesaw. 

Nora can’t move. The figure thrusts the bonesaw into her chest and begins to saw through. Piper watches, her expression almost bored. 

“I’ve found it, Ms. Wright,” says the figure. They reach their hand into Nora’s chest and pull out her heart for Piper to see. 

Piper smiles thinly. “There we are. You have a heart after all.”

Nora is falling again, spinning wildly out of control in the dust, the radiation and the heat. She spins and spins and spins and stops. 

She’s in the middle of a field of tatoes. She picks one idly and holds it in her hand. 

It’s not a tato. It’s her still-beating heart. 

She hasn’t stopped screaming.


	10. Chapter 10

**MACCREADY**

As the doors of Vault 99 opened up, an uncomfortable silence spread across the group. They stood there for awhile, no one speaking as the vault door creaked open. It was Hancock who finally spoke up.

“You weren’t kidding about this place being creepy.” 

“It’s unsettling,” Danse agreed. “Extremely unsettling.”

“I tried to warn her,” MacCready muttered, feeling his heart wrench. “I really did.”

Cait shrugged, trying to give off a nonchalant vibe and failing miserably. “Do you really think any of us can convince Nora not to do something she wants to do?”

A few chuckles echoed across the group. “She’s a stubborn woman, that’s for sure,” Preston agreed. 

“A stubborn woman we’re here to rescue from a vault,” said Nick. “Takes me back to when we first met. Only she’s the damsel in the distress this time.”

“Oh, she’ll love that,” Deacon muttered. 

“Everyone got enough ammo?” MacCready asked, for want of anything better to say. “We ready to get in there?”

“Oh, I’m ready,” said Hancock, gripping his weapon in hand. MacCready can feel the anger radiating off the ghoul. Hancock’s not the kind of guy who takes people hurting his friends lying down. 

Whoever’s behind this sick experiment is going to be in for a hell of a nasty surprise. 

**NORA**

There’s a hand on her shoulder. She looks down at the tato-heart, throbbing in her palm. It vanishes into a trail of blood. 

“I’ve received word of a settlement that needs our help.”

She looks up to see Preston standing at the edge of a burning forest. He points into the flames. “There’s a settler trapped in there. They need your help.”

“No one can survive that,” says Nora. 

“You’re the General of the Minutemen,” Preston insists. “You’re there to help the people at a minute’s notice. Even if it seems hopeless.”

“If I go in there, I’ll burn.”

“After everything your son has done to the Commonwealth,” says Preston coldly, “you won’t even help someone who needs it?” 

She gulps. “Of course I’ll help, but this is suicide.”

“The settlers need your help, General.” He points into the flames again. “You owe them that much.”

“Preston, please-”

“If you won’t do this, then what kind of a General are you?” he demands. “You’re prepared to let them burn. You’re prepared to let everything burn, as long as you survive. I thought you were different. I thought you were here to help. But you’re as selfish as everyone else in this wasteland.”

“I want to help,” Nora insists. 

“Then _prove it_.”

Nora takes a deep breath. “This isn’t real. This. Isn’t. Real.”

She walks into the flames. They nip at her skin. She starts to smell burning flesh. The pain is almost unbearable. She screams. 

**MACCREADY**

“Curie, Danse, you stay here at the entrance,” Preston instructed. “Nick and Isabel, you’re in front to get that door open. Deacon, you keep Nick and Isabel covered. Piper, you hang back - when we get to Nora, we’ll need to make a call as to whether we can move her back to Curie or we need Curie to go straight to her. If that happens, Danse will provide cover for Curie, or I’ll step in as needed.” Preston adjusted his hat and turned to look at the group. “Hancock and Cait - you give whatever’s in there hell. And MacCready…”

MacCready nodded. “Get to Nora. No matter what.”

A look of understanding passed between the two men. They might not always be on the same page, but there was one thing the entire group could agree on. And that was Nora. 

They made their way down the corridor slowly, Cait checking all the locked doors for any sign of another entrance for a tactical advantage. She growled as she opened yet another supply closet. MacCready poked his head in to have a look and burst out laughing despite himself. 

“What’s so funny?” Cait asked, clearly annoyed. 

“There’s just… so much duct tape.” MacCready grinned. “As Nora would say…”

“...we never leave duct tape behind,” Nick, Hancock and Deacon chorused, before chuckling. 

“She does that with you as well?” asked Preston in amusement. “I thought she was insane at first, but I have to admit - it’s come in pretty useful around the settlements.” 

“We’ll clear the place out once we smoke these robot bastards,” Hancock promised. “After this, Sunshine can have all the duct tape her little heart desires.”

MacCready picked up a packet and shoved it in his pocket before following the rest of the group down the hall.

**NORA**

Nora’s high above the Commonwealth. Suspended in the air. She looks up. It’s a vertibird. She sees Paladin Danse looking down at her, face contorted with rage. 

“You’re responsible for the synth abominations,” he yells at her. “It’s your son’s DNA, _your_ DNA. Your son calls himself Father, but you’re responsible - you’re his mother. The synths are all your children, too, and they must be destroyed.”

“They’re not my children,” Nora yells back. “I didn’t know. I didn’t plan any of this.”

“It doesn’t matter. You need to be held accountable for what you’ve done.”

“The Institute _stole_ my child! I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“If you and your baby had never survived the bombs, the Commonwealth would be safe,” Danse insists. “We’re not about to let them have a second chance. What was it Kellogg called you? The ‘backup’. If we want to prevent this from happening again, you need to be destroyed.”

“This doesn’t make sense.” The ground is so far away. The wind whips around her ears and her stomach churns at the distance. “Danse, you have to help me.” 

Danse raises his weapon and shoots the rope tying her to the vertibird. 

She’s falling. The city blurs past her as she plummets, getting closer yet further away. The grey of the concrete. Green blurry figures. An insistent red beeping. The smell of decaying flesh. Curses and bloodlust. 

Nora hits the ground. 

**MACCREADY**

“Well, here we go.” Nick walked to the terminal and frowned. “This is definitely a tough one. It might take awhile. Just bear with me.”

Isabel’s bots were hovering nearby. MacCready knew they were an essential part of this whole operation, but they bugged him anyway. He kept having to curb the urge to swat them out of the way. 

Nearby, Cait was practically vibrating with energy, pacing and back and forth. “Been too long since I picked a fight,” she muttered, shooting concerned looks at Nick as he worked on the terminal. 

Isabel, for her part, looked terrified. Piper had made sure she was well protected with the best armor they could get their hands on and Deacon had assured her he had her back, but that hadn’t seemed to alleviate her fears all that much. It reminded MacCready so much of Nora when they first met - she’d barely known how to hold that shotgun. 

Deacon leaned against a wall, seemingly nonchalant. “All we’re missing is some tunes,” he commented. “Never thought I’d miss the sweet sounds of Diamond City radio day in and day out.”

“Don’t remind me,” Hancock said with a laugh. “Running around the Commons, singing along to those ridiculous songs - Nora’s not exactly the queen of stealth.”

“One time I managed to convince her to change it to the classical station and we had a truly cinematic experience,” Deacon confessed. “There’s nothing like taking down a Deathclaw to the sound of ‘Ride of the Valkyries’.”

“Ride of the what?” asked Cait.

Deacon grinned, then warbled tunelessly. “Dun-dun-da-da-duuuuuuuuuuun, dun-da-da-duuuuuuuuun duuuun!”

“If you’re all quite finished,” said Nick irritably. “I’d like to concentrate here.”

They all stopped talking just in time to hear that blessed beep. MacCready’s heart stops for a moment. “You’re through?” 

Nick nods. “I’m through. You all ready?”

They all nodded in agreement, tensing their weapons. 

“Opening the door now.”

The door opened and the sounds of screams and metal broke the silence. 

“Go!” yelled Isabel as her bots flew through the door. “Self-destruct initiated!”

The group ran for cover just in time for the bots to explode.

**NORA**

Nora hits the ground and the color gets sucked out of the world. Everything is black and white. She hears a train in the distance. 

She’s tied to the train tracks. 

It’s so ridiculous, she finds herself laughing. 

“Hey, I thought it was a bit much at first as well,” says Deacon, smiling at her coldly, eyes hidden by his ever-present sunglasses. He’s crouched down near her, looking over her bound form. “But never let it be said I don’t have a flair for the dramatic.”

“What the hell is this, Deacon?”

Deacon grins. “What do you think it is? It’s obviously… the end of the line.”

“We’re friends. We’re on the same side - I’ve _helped_ the Railroad,” Nora says, struggling against her bonds. “What possible reason could you have to tie me to the fucking train tracks?” 

He shrugs. The train blares in the distance. He’s wearing a lab coat now, along with a black pompadour wig. Ever changing, ever shifting Deacon. 

“You could have made a difference, Wanderer,” he says cruelly. “You could have been our eyes and ears in the belly of the beast. Instead, you destroyed our chance to bring it all crashing down from the inside.”

“I’m going to destroy the Institute,” Nora vows. “You have my word. Let me go.”

“You’re going to blow it all to hell,” says Deacon. “You’ll destroy them all. All the synths I’ve devoted my life to protecting. I can’t let you do that.”

He stands up and looks down at her. _Wastelander camo_ , he’d called that look. The train is getting closer. 

Deacon walks away. 

Nora closes her eyes and waits for the impact.

**MACCREADY**

He wanted to run in the minute the explosion finished. Hell, he’d wanted to run straight in since they first got here. But he knew he had to be smart about it. He’d count to ten, then he’d go in. 

He got to five when 3 more explosions set off in quick succession. 

_See? Pays not to be so impatient._

After those explosions die down, he looks to Preston, who nods. And without a word, he barrelled into the room. 

It’s chaos. More and more Protectrons and Mr. Handys flooded into the room from a door at the back. Hancock and Cait rushed toward them, Cait smashing whatever she can find with a Super Sledge they’d liberated for her from a supermutant a few weeks back. MacCready began to pick off the robots from a distance with his plasma rifle, taking shot after shot in quick succession. Within seconds, he had 3 Mr. Handys down. 

“Step back!” he yelled to Hancock and Cait. “Gonna frag ‘em!”

He threw 3 plasma grenades in quick succession as Cait and Hancock jumped under a table for cover. Before they’d even exploded, he’d managed to take out another robot with his rifle. 

As Hancock and Cait pushed through to the next room, MacCready looked around the room he was in wildly. Checking all the loungers. Looking for Nora. Preston saw what he was doing and joined in the search. 

“All these people,” said Preston in dismay, “what’s happening to them?”

“Look up,” MacCready said, his stomach turning. Preston did so and gasped at the screens above, displaying all sorts of horrific scenarios. MacCready growled and shot the screen nearest to him. 

“We have to do something,” Preston insisted.

“We will,” MacCready promised. “When we have Nora.”

He followed Cait and Hancock into the next room, which had a similar set-up. He felt nauseous. How many people were trapped down here? How far did this go? Once again, he looked through the loungers - still no sign of Nora. Hancock and Cait had just finished taking out the robots and headed to the next door, which was locked by a terminal. 

“We need Nick over here!” Hancock yelled. MacCready felt Nick push past him and run for the terminal. This one opened quicker and they barrelled through again, Cait smashing every robot in sight with her Supersledge, Hancock with a shotgun and MacCready with his rifle from a distance. 

He almost dropped his rifle when he saw Nora, motionless in a large blue lounger at the back of the room. His heart thumping in his chest, he ran past the Protectrons and straight toward her. 

“Nora! Please be okay, please be okay…” He looked at the pod as closely as he could, trying to figure out what to do next. “We need to get you out of here.”

Her arms were studded with thick needles, pumping god knew what into her system. She had what looked like electrodes on her temples and her skin was so, so, so pale. He could see the rise and fall of her chest - shallow, but still breathing. Unlike the others, there was no screen attached to her. 

He couldn’t decide if that was better or worse. 

“MacCready!” Cait screamed from behind him. “Look out!”

He turned to see a Robobrain advancing toward him. He didn’t have time to react - the Robobrain attacked, sending him flying into the wall behind him.

MacCready hit the wall with a thud. He could hear the Robobrain laughing. “I was wondering when you’d show up, _Robert_.”

**NORA**

When she opens her eyes, she’s standing on the edge of a cliff face. She’s back in the Glowing Sea. And she’s not alone. 

Her heart nearly breaks when she sees MacCready standing in front of her. MacCready in his stupid hat, his battered coat swaying in the wind. His rifle pointed straight at her face. 

“Robert…” she begins. 

He jerks the rifle closer to her. “Don’t call me that,” he snaps. His voice is low. Dangerous. 

“MacCready, come on. What are you doing?”

“It didn’t work,” he says, his voice breaking. “The cure didn’t work. He’s dead. My son is dead.” 

All she wants to do is run up to him and take him in her arms. But there’s the rifle, the dangerous look on his face. 

_No. He wouldn’t hurt me. He would_ never _hurt me._

“This isn’t real,” she says, trying to keep her voice even. “This isn’t real. It’s not really happening, it’s just… it’s just pretend. Duncan is-”

“Don’t say his name,” MacCready growls. “Just don’t.”

“What are you doing?” she asks. 

He tightens his grip on his rifle and smiles cruelly. “I’ve been paid a fuckton of caps to kill you, Nora Pendleton. But you know what? I’d have done it for free.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so mean to characters I claim to love. Come on.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: implied non-con/dub-con near the end of this chapter. I've separated it with ****** so you can skip over it if it's gonna bother you.

**MACCREADY**

MacCready sat up, dazed but not too out of it to register the Robobrain’s words. “How do you know my name?” he demanded. 

The Robobrain laughed and _oh man_ , MacCready had seen robobrains before but he’d never heard them laugh and it was unsettling as all hell. “I’ve seen inside her mind,” it replied, tone almost gleeful. “There’s so much to _play_ with in there. I’m awfully fond of her, as I’m sure you’ll understand. So I won’t be letting her go quite so easily.”

Hancock took a shot which the Robobrain easily deflected. In a quick, effortless movement, the Robobrain emitted a pulse and knocked both Hancock and Cait unconscious. 

MacCready growled and stood up, ignoring the pounding of his head. “I’m gonna tear you apart,” he promised. 

It laughed again. “Robert, Robert, Robert. You’re not in the best bargaining position here.” It moved toward him, casual but menacing. “I knew a Robert once. We were classmates, actually - both graduated from the Commonwealth Institute of Technology. Class of 2041.” 

Despite the taunting tone, MacCready actually felt himself calming down at the robobrain’s words. _Keep him talking. Give the others time to get in here and do their thing._

“I didn’t know they let Robobrains go to school,” MacCready sneered. “Not that I’m an expert on old world education or anything.”

“You’re smarter than that, Robert,” the Robobrain replied mockingly. “You know I wasn’t always like this. Obviously I wanted to keep my research going, but I had no interest in succumbing to radiation and turning ghoul. I always thought my brain was my best feature anyway.”

“Not asked on many dates then, huh?” MacCready replied, equally mockingly. “What am I supposed to call you anyway?”

The Robobrain laughed. “It’s been so long, I don’t remember _my_ name. Just call me _Brain_. It almost matches my old friend Stanislaus - oh, did we enjoy some friendly competition. I got my secret vault here in the New England Commonwealth, whereas he got one of the recorded ones in the Columbia Commonwealth. I won that round. But then what does he do? He convinces them to let him open his vault two years early! Talk about a head start. But he did always play dirty. I wonder what happened to him. We had… similar goals.” 

“And what might those goals be?” 

Brain laughed again. “I know you’re just trying to keep me talking so you’ve got more time to make your daring escape and in any other situation, I’d just _kill_ you and be done with it - but it has been _such_ a long time since I’ve talked to anyone, so I’ll indulge you.” It moved closer to Nora, hovering over her almost lovingly. “Stanislaus Braun wanted to control people’s lives, let them live out all sorts of fun scenarios in those simulations of his. External influence, if you will. But I wanted to do something else - I wanted to unlock what was already in people’s minds. Get into their heads. Make them see what they _fear_.”

MacCready felt sick to his stomach. “You’re torturing her,” he spat out. “But because it’s for science, that’s okay, huh?”

“Oh, I decided to try something different with Nora here,” said Brain, almostly pleasantly. “You see, Nora’s in a very unique position. Imagine what she went through - one day she’s going to the park with her husband and baby, living in a picture perfect house in picture perfect suburbia, then the next day she wakes up to find everything gone. Everything destroyed. The world she knows - dead. Her husband dead. Her baby gone. I don’t need to unlock what she fears from her mind - she’s already lived it.”

MacCready tensed. “Then what did you do to her?”

If the damned Robobrain had expressions, it would have looked smug. “I gave her the world back.” At MacCready’s confused look, it continued. “I let her go back there in her mind. Back to before the bombs fell. I gave her back her husband. I gave her back her baby. Her life, her job, her nice clothes, her nice house, her neighborhood - everything. I sent her back in time, if you will.”

His first reaction was terror. Terror that she would never forgive him. Because hell, if he had the choice to go back to when his life was perfect, he’d take it in a heartbeat. He knew he couldn’t leave her there - _he couldn’t_ \- but if it were him and she ripped him away from a reality where Lucy was alive and Duncan was never sick, he wouldn’t thank her for it. 

Would he understand, though? If it were him, would he rather be with a real Nora or a fake Lucy? He wasn’t sure he could answer that. But the idea of never seeing Nora again made him sick to the stomach. _It’s selfish, but I can’t lose her. Not to this. Not to being trapped in her own mind - even if it’s where she’d rather be._

It took him a moment to realise that Brain was laughing again. “Poor, conflicted Robert,” it taunted. “You think she doesn’t want to leave, don’t you? Well, maybe that’s true. Or maybe it would be, if she weren’t so stubborn.”

_Wait, what?_

“What do you mean?” he demanded. “What did you do to her?”

“I told you,” Brain said, its tone maddeningly smug. “I sent her mind back to before. But she just wouldn’t accept it. Reality kept breaking through - she kept remembering her life in the wasteland you call home. All of the people she’d grown to care about since she got out of that vault.”

“She knows it’s not real?”

“She figured it out,” Brain confirmed. “Stubborn woman. I would have let her live out the rest of her days in the past if she hadn’t kept _pushing_. Slotting you all into her life. Breaking the facade I constructed for her so carefully. Ungrateful, if you ask me.” 

MacCready edged closer to Nora, looking at her carefully. God, she was pale. Thinner, too, somehow - like someone had sapped all the energy out of her. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her this still. He’d seen her sleep when it was his turn to keep watch, but she wasn’t exactly a heavy sleeper - she’d roll around, murmur, occasionally kick. Seeing her like this… it _hurt_. 

“So if that didn’t work, then why not just let her go?” MacCready asked, somewhat desperately. “Even you science types should know when to cut your losses. We’ll take her and we’ll go. Simple as that. Never bother you again.”

“Do you really think she’d let me stay here and keep up my experiments?” Brain asked, voice full of amusement and condescension. “I’ve been inside her head. I _know_ her. You know her, too.”

He thought back to her reaction when they first arrived in the vault. The horror on her face. The steely resolve in her voice. 

_“I have to help these people. This ends now.”_

“I’ll tell her I killed you and the vault collapsed,” MacCready improvised wildly. “Something. Anything. I don’t care what you do here, just leave her out of it.”

“If it were just you here, I’d consider it,” said Brain, voice still condescending. “But you’ve got a team with you. The gang’s all here. And just because she won’t stay in the past I so kindly created for her doesn’t mean I’m completely out of options.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Brain pushed a button on the lounger Nora lay in. A screen appeared on the wall behind her. 

“You’ll have to excuse the lack of popcorn.”

As a familiar figure appeared on the screen, MacCready’s blood ran cold. There he was, standing on the edge of a cliff. Pointing a gun at Nora’s head. 

**NORA**

It’s all too much. His gun practically touches her forehead. She closes her eyes and begs for her life. 

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” she pleads tearfully. “We’ve travelled together, Mac - I helped you wipe out the Gunners. I helped you find the cure - I’m so sorry it didn’t work, I’m so, so, so sorry… you’re upset, you don’t want to do this.”

“Of course I want to do this,” he says mockingly. “Do you have any idea how frustrating it’s been, traveling with you? Carrying your shit around the Commonwealth, watching you give and give and give to those ungrateful bastards, just to appease your own guilt? You’re trying to hold on to a world that’s long gone, Nora - trying to bring it back. And all you’re proving is you’re not cut out for this one.”

**MACCREADY**

He wanted to throw up at the sight of himself, holding a rifle to Nora’s head. Wanted to scream, cry, throw things at the words he was saying on the screen. 

“It’s not true, Nora,” he said urgently, willing her unconscious form to hear him. “That’s not me. It’s not me. It’s not real. You know this. You _know_ me.”

**NORA**

“The least you can do is tell me who wants me dead.” Her voice is wavering more than she wants it to. She’s shaking. It’s so cold. Like waking up from that freezer, all over again. 

MacCready laughs bitterly. “Who do you think? Your son. The son you told me was _dead_. How’s that for irony, huh? Here I am, feeling the tiniest bit sorry for you, when it’s all bullshit. Your son’s alive - he just doesn’t fit into your perfect view of what the world should be. So you cast him aside.”

“He’s the leader of the Institute! He’s 60 years old, he grew up without me, he was raised to believe that everyone above surface is inferior and that messing with their lives doesn’t matter,” Nora insists. “I didn’t just cast him aside - he’s… he’s not my son anymore.”

“How nice for you to have that choice,” MacCready sneers. “Like you’d have done a better job raising him. You with your stupid, naive, idealistic view of the world - if they hadn’t taken him, if he’d been with you when you climbed out of that vault, you’d both be dead. You wouldn’t have survived. You wouldn’t have saved him. Just like I couldn’t save my son.”

**MACCREADY**

“This is bullsh- this isn’t true, Nora. Duncan’s alive,” said MacCready to Nora’s unconscious form. “He was cured. I just got a letter. He’s okay. This isn’t real. None of it’s real.”

Brain laughed. “I wouldn’t say _none_ of it is real.”

“Nora’s son... Shaun’s not the leader of the Institute, that’s not possible,” MacCready argued. 

“Oh, that part’s definitely true. She didn’t tell you what she _really_ found at the Institute. It’s really quite tragic. The Institute took her son away, re-froze her and defrosted her again 60 years later. In that time, they raised her son and groomed him to be their leader. And when she found out, she refused to help him. He let her go, but… well, the chances are you’re all on the verge of war with the Institute and you don’t even know it.”

MacCready felt numb. “She told me he was dead.”

“After what you both went through to save _your_ son? I’m not surprised she lied.” 

**NORA**

“I am truly sorry about Duncan,” Nora begins.

The rifle presses into her forehead harder. MacCready’s finger is dangerously close to the trigger. “You don’t deserve to say his name. Don’t act like you care.”

She’s openly weeping now. “Of course I care. How could you think I don’t care? MacCready, please. You’re… you’re the person I care about most in this entire _era_. This isn’t you. What you’re doing now… how you’re acting… it isn’t you. It isn’t real.”

She yells out in the radiation storm at the top of her lungs. “THIS ISN’T REAL!”

**MACCREADY**

MacCready felt his heart leap at the sight of her screaming at the sky. “Yes!” He turned to Brain and smirked. “She’s too smart for you, you robotic bastard.”

In the corner of his eye, he spotted Deacon and Isabel, sneaking toward the Robobrain. He put together what they were trying to do instantly. He had to keep distracting it. Just a bit longer. 

“She’s certainly spirited,” Brain admitted, seeming less amused than it had. 

“This the best you can do, _’Brain’_?” he said mockingly. “Seriously, come on. Face it, she’s outwitted you.”

Brain whirred and moved closer to Nora’s unconscious form. “Oh, I’m far from out of ideas.”

**NORA**

MacCready is standing there, his expression unreadable. Finally, he throws down the sniper rifle and steps toward her. She takes his hand tentatively. 

All of a sudden, his lips are on hers and she can’t help but melt into them because this is everything she’s been dreaming about for months now. Everything she hasn’t let herself want since almost the moment she first laid eyes on him in Goodneighbor. His hands are in her hair, his mouth is warm and wet and she’s pretty sure she can hear him moan. 

_Yes,_ she thinks. _Yes, yes, yes._

**********

**MACCREADY**

He really didn’t see that coming. 

Watching himself kiss Nora on the screen was mesmerising. Better than anything he’d ever dreamed. He watched as she eagerly responded to his lips on hers and envied his imaginary self, hands running through that silky dark hair. His breath hitched. He could almost feel the ghost of her lips on his. 

Then something shifted in the image. His senses pricked up. _Something’s not right.._

Nora started to scream. MacCready watched in horror as ‘he’ plunged a combat knife into her back. 

**NORA**

Pain. Sharp and hot and terrifying, running through her. MacCready pulls out the blade, then pushes her to the ground, climbing on top of her to stab her again. “This is the reality of the wasteland, Nora,” he says, eyes gleaming with a manic intensity she’s never seen before. “People want to screw you or kill you - usually both.” He kisses her roughly then drags the knife along the side of her neck. “Sure, you’re attractive - I’m not blind. I’ve seen the way you look at me. Since I’m going to kill you anyway, might as well have a little fun.”

“This isn’t you,” she says firmly. She knows. _She knows him._ She even knows how this works. It’s not real and it’ll end and she’ll move on to the next horror. 

“This is exactly who I am,” he replies with a grin. “If you think otherwise, you’re kidding yourself.”

**MACCREADY**

**************

Bile rose up in his stomach at what he was seeing. He was going to be sick. This couldn’t be happening. “Nora, please,” he begged. “You know this isn’t real. You know it!”

Brain laughed, louder than it had at any other time. “It’s all there in her head, you know.”

“That’s not what she thinks,” MacCready snarled. “You’re making this happen.”

“I might be,” the Brain conceded. “I might not be. You’ll never know - and it’ll eat you up for the rest of your life.” It laughed again. “Well, at least it’s not going to be a long life.”

“You wanna torture someone?” MacCready said desperately. “Okay. Fine. Let’s cut a deal - you let her go, I’ll get in that lounger and you can have at it. Do whatever the hell you want with me.”

“And risk her hunting me down? No thanks.”

“The others won’t let her,” MacCready insisted. “She’s not just important to me, she’s important to all of them - important to the whole damn Commonwealth. Hell, it’s not like I’ve got a ton of a lot to offer this place. She means so much to so many people. They wouldn’t let her go again. Not for me.”

Brain ‘looked’ at him for a long moment, as if considering his offer. MacCready willed himself not to look at Deacon and Isabel sneaking up behind it. 

_Just a little longer, just a little longer._

“You’d give up ever seeing your son again, just to keep her safe?” Brain asked. 

MacCready didn’t even need to think about his answer. “If she’s safe, she’ll keep _him_ safe. So yeah. I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Initiate shut-down!” 

Isabel had made it to her target. The robot stuttered, then stopped deadly still. 

From the lounger, Nora gasped in a deep breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who's stuck with me on this one. We're nearing the finish line on this one... stay tuned!


	12. Chapter 12

**NORA**

There were needles in her arms. That was the first thing she noticed. She was in a lounger, similar to the ones they had The Memory Den, except that certainly hadn’t involved needles. She moved her arm experimentally, trying to get free. It was so bright. So incredibly bright, it hurt her eyes, so she kept them mostly shut as she tried to figure out what would happen next. 

“Nora!” a familiar voice said, sounding both panicked and relieved. “Can you hear me?”

Her heartbeat sped up. MacCready. It was definitely MacCready. But which MacCready was it - the one she knew? The one who was her son’s best friend’s dad? The one who kissed her and stabbed her, sent to kill her on Shaun’s orders? 

“Where am I?” she asked instead, blinking to adjust to the light. 

“You’re in Vault 99,” MacCready replied. He peered down at her, looking just like she somehow knew he was supposed to. He looked… relieved. Worried. Concerned. 

_It’s another trick. It’s another way to mess with me._

“I’m gonna get you out of here,” he said, reaching toward her. 

Her stomach lurched and she moved as far as the needles in her arm would let her. “Don’t touch me!” she yelled. 

MacCready - if it even _was_ MacCready - jumped back as if she were on fire. Maybe she was on fire. Maybe they’d both burst into flames any minute. 

She looked at his face, really looked, and couldn’t quite place the expression. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say it was heartbreak. 

But she was sure - at least eighty percent sure - that this was just another illusion. Any minute he’d turn on her. This couldn’t be real. 

“Nora, I am so, so sorry,” he said quietly, looking down.

She bit her lip. She still didn’t know if this was real - the world was swirling around her, all bright lights and fuzzy edges - but if it wasn’t, there’d be something new any minute. Unless this was part of it. Unless getting out was the next challenge she had to overcome. 

With a determined jerk, she pulled her arms out of the lounger, letting the needles rip through her skin. MacCready stared at her, a look of horror on his face. 

“I’ll get Curie,” a voice from behind him said. Familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. Another one of her betrayers? Another one of the people she cared about, here to see her end? 

“It’s not real,” she told MacCready, ignoring the pain in her arms. “It’s not real, it’ll stop any minute and I’ll be somewhere else. There’ll be someone else here. I just have to… hold on a bit longer.”

“This is real,” MacCready insisted. He didn’t reach for her. That was the proof. He didn’t want to touch her because it wasn’t real.

_Or because you told him not to touch you and he doesn’t want to upset you. This **might** be real. _

“It’s not,” she told him (herself). “It’s not, so just stop pretending. You can get the _fuck_ away from me. You're _not_ real.”

She pulled herself out of the lounger and another figure moved from behind MacCready into her line of sight. “Whoa there, Wanderer, I don’t think you should be up and at ‘em just yet.”

“Jesus Christ,” drawled an exceptionally pissed off Irish voice. “What the fuck just happened?”

“Worse than a damn hangover - remind me not to fuck with those robobrain things again. Hey, is that - Nora!”

“I don’t know why you’re all here at once,” Nora said sharply. “But this isn’t really happening and I’m getting out of here.”

She stood up, her head spinning, vision going in and out of focus. She saw them all, standing there looking worried - copies of her friends. Deacon, Hancock, Cait and MacCready, and another figure she took a moment to place - Isabel. 

“Isabel,” she called out. “You’re the only person in this room who hasn’t tried to kill me so I’m giving you the…. benefit of the doubt… please help me get out of here?”

When her vision let her see the young girl, Isabel looked like a rabbit in the headlights. “Of course I’ll help you… we’re _all_ here to help you…”

Nora laughed. “Oh, you’re not real either, but… none of you are real, none of this is real, and I just want to go home… I want to see my husband and my son, I want to see Shaun playing Grognak with his friend Duncan and Robert in that stupid sweater vest…”

“What?” asked MacCready, his eyes wide. 

“I just want things to be good,” Nora confessed, closing her eyes to block out the brightness of the room. “I just want everyone I care about in the same place at the same time. Not to have to fight to survive. But I’m never going to get it because it’s not real. Nothing’s real. Nothing’s felt real since I woke up in ice, since I stepped onto that elevator, since the whole damn world blew up - and if it’s not real, then what am I even doing?”

“Nora, you need to sit down.”

She shook her head. “I need to know what’s real.”

She opened her eyes and the last thing she remembered was MacCready’s anguished face calling her name before she blacked out. 

**MACCREADY**

MacCready caught her as she fell so she wouldn’t hit the floor, feeling guilty as he did it. She’d asked him not to touch her and given _everything_ , the last thing he wanted to do was go against her consent. But he figured it was better than letting her injure herself more. 

“Fucking hell,” Cait swore as he gently laid her on the ground. “They really did a number on her, didn’t they?”

“Has anyone got a stimpak?” Deacon asked. “We should do something about her arms - that’s… a lot of blood.” MacCready took off his coat, bundled it up and put it under her head. 

When he’d caught her, his hands had ended up covered in her blood. 

He thought he was going to be sick. 

“Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle Nora!” 

Curie pushed past him and got down to Nora’s level, making concerned sounds in French. He watched as she administered a stimpak in short, controlled bursts along her injured arms, then fumbled in her satchel for more medical supplies. 

“She is very dehydrated,” Curie announced. “There are more supplies here - maybe I can hook her up to an IV in here and we can move her when she has more fluids in her system.”

“We can get all the equipment back to the settlement,” MacCready rushed to say. “Anything you need. I don’t think she should wake up here again.”

“Agreed,” said Deacon, his voice more serious than MacCready had ever heard him. “We need to get her the hell away from this place.”

“I can carry her back to the settlement,” Danse offered. MacCready hadn’t even noticed him following Curie in. The older man turned to MacCready, his tone uncharacteristically kind. “That is, unless you wanted to, MacCready.”

He wanted to hold her and never let go. But not like this. “She asked me not to touch her,” he muttered. “That robobrain showed her things… I don’t want her to wake up halfway there and freak out. You take her.”

Danse looked taken aback and seemed about to say something, then thought better of it and nodded. “I’ll be happy to.”

“Cait, Hancock, you guys doing alright?” Deacon asked. “You both kinda got robobrained.”

“Robotic asshole,” Cait muttered. “No need to worry about me, darlin’. Ain’t letting a wee robot get the best of me.”

“Head trauma’s a normal Thursday night for me,” Hancock drawled. “Couple of Mentats and I’m good to go.” He searched in his pocket for the aforementioned chems and produced a box with a flourish. 

“How’s this for a plan,” Preston said. MacCready hadn’t noticed he was there, either. _You’re supposed to be observant,_ a voice in his head taunted him. “MacCready, Nick, Hancock and I will escort Danse and Nora back to the settlement. Curie, you and Isabel take any medical supplies or equipment you need from the vault and bring them back. Piper, Deacon and Cait, if you could start salvaging what you can for materials - I’ll send some settlers back here once we arrive at Sunshine Tidings.” He smiled, a tad humorlessly. “The General’s been to hell and back. Least we can do is make sure she gets what she came here for.”

“Good plan,” Hancock agreed. “Good to leave in numbers.”

“Do you mind if I swap with Cait?” MacCready found himself saying. Everyone stared at him for a long moment. He looked down. “I just… Cait’ll protect her. I’m happy to help here.”

“I don’t think she meant it, kid,” Nick said finally. “When she said to get away from her. Like Preston said, she’s been to hell and back. She just needs time to recover.”

“Yeah, well, best not to push it til we know,” he replied stubbornly. 

Cait shrugged. “If you’d really rather be lugging back duct tape and scrap metal, then by all means.” She put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. “It’ll be alright, you know. She cares about you.”

“She cares about all of us,” MacCready agreed. 

Cait rolled her eyes and smiled kindly. “That’s not what I meant, you idiot.”

“Just get her back to the settlement in one piece, will you?” 

Cait nodded. “Always. And hey, MacCready…”

“Yeah?”

She smiled. “We got her back. That’s the hard part done, right?”

MacCready would have liked to think so, but something told him it wasn’t going to be that simple. 

**DEACON**

“Deacon, for the love of all that is good in the world could you _please_ stop singing?”

He paused in his rendition of ‘Butcher Pete’ to give Piper a bright smile. “I thought we could use some entertainment while we’re taking things apart. What we’re doing is kind of like hackin’ and whackin’ and smackin’.”

“Shut up,” MacCready groaned. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Hey, you’re the one who volunteered to be here,” Deacon pointed out. “Ol’ Preston was happy to give you guard duty, but noooo… you decided to chicken out.”

“I’m trying to be respectful, ass- er, jerk.”

“Respectful?” Deacon replied with an exaggerated gasp, grabbing at his chest as if clutching imaginary pearls. “You young whippersnappers don’t understand the meaning of the word.”

“Could you lay off?” MacCready snapped. “Can we just rip this place apart in piece?”

Piper shot Deacon a silencing look, and he nodded. “Alright then.”

A few moments later, there was a large crash. They turned to see MacCready beating the crap out of a poor, defenseless gurney. “What the hell, MacCready?” Piper asked, taking the wrench off him. 

“Yeah, I think it’s dead.” 

MacCready pouted. “I just figured if I took it apart, we could drag some of the stuffing back and use it for… mattresses or whatever. She’s always going on about more beds, right? You’d think it was the worst thing in the world to have to sleep in shifts. I mean, come on, most of the time I’m sleeping on a rock somewhere if we’re on the road - having a real bed is a luxury and they should all shut the fu- the hel - the heck up.”

“Or we could just take it back as it is,” Piper suggested cautiously. “We’ll have reinforcements on the way soon. They’re bringing a couple of pack Brahmin. I’m sure they can handle it.”

“Okay, maybe I wanted to beat the shi- maybe I wanted to let out some aggression,” MacCready admitted stubbornly. “Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s been a hell of a week.”

“No arguments from me on that one,” Piper agreed. “I don’t know if destroying a gurney is really going to make you feel better.”

“I just… I want to know if she’s okay.”

Piper crossed her arms. “Then why aren’t you with her?”

MacCready didn’t answer. He just looked at the ground. Piper sighed. “You’re not helping her here, you know. You’re just hiding.”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” MacCready snapped. “For once in your life, maybe you could try minding your own damn business.”

It was very faint, but Deacon saw Piper flinch. MacCready had hit a nerve. Before Piper could open her mouth with a scathing retort, Deacon interrupted. “Piper, do you mind giving Mac and I a moment?” 

She glared at him for a moment, then softened and sighed. “Fine. I’ll go get that duct tape. Try not to kill each other.”

She walked out into the corridor. Deacon focused his attention on MacCready, who had clearly decided it was his turn to do some glaring. “Whatever it is you think you’ve got to say, you can save it. I _don’t_ want to talk about this.”

“I was going to talk about all that stuff I saw on the screen,” Deacon said casually. “Never figured you for someone who liked a little blood in your kisses.”

MacCready practically lunged at him. “That was _not_ me,” he hissed. 

“Of course it wasn’t,” Deacon replied, equally intensely. “So stop acting like it.”

The younger man retreated as if he’d been slapped. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

“Just because it’s what that robot made her see, doesn’t mean that’s how she sees you,” Deacon insisted. “You’re smarter than that.”

MacCready deflated and for a moment, it hit Deacon just how _young_ he was. How young both he and Nora were, despite the fact that Nora had a good 200 years on all of them. “I hate that I hurt her,” he said quietly. “Even if it wasn’t _me_ , it was still me.”

“It wasn’t even a little bit you,” Deacon assured him. “And once she’s had some time to recover, she won’t blame you for it. As far as I can tell, she’s been plunged into all sorts of horrible realities in her mind since she was first trapped in here - and pumped full of god knows what kind of drugs. We get the drugs out of her system, we give her some time to adjust and it’s all going to be okay.”

MacCready nodded. Then, as if remembering something, he looked at Deacon and narrowed his eyes. “You knew about her son, didn’t you?”

_Damn snipers. They don’t miss a thing._

“What makes you say that?”

“You weren’t surprised.”

Deacon shrugged. “Being able to hide your surprise is pretty vital in my line of work.”

MacCready kept staring at him. Deacon had been stared down by plenty of people in his life, people who were far more intimidating that one Robert Joseph MacCready, the Capital Wasteland born and bred ex-Gunner mercenary with a chip on his shoulder and a son he loved more than life itself. Sure, he could probably win this staring match and convince the kid he didn’t know anything. But at this point, it might be more useful to tell the truth than to lie. 

He was a liar to his core but even he knew when to use a well-placed nugget of truth. 

“Say I did know about her son,” Deacon said with another shrug. “What then? What does it really matter?”

“Did she tell you?” MacCready asked. 

Deacon wanted to lie, he really did. And yet… “She didn’t tell me.”

He expected MacCready to look relieved, but instead, he just looked more upset. “She didn’t know you knew, did she?” 

Deacon shook his head. 

MacCready looked distraught. “She had to carry that all by herself. And you knew? You could have talked to her. Could have helped her through it. Hell, you didn’t have to tell me - any of us - but she should have had someone. That kind of burden… it’s too much for one person to bear.” He continued, almost as speaking to himself. “We’ve been non-stop since she left the Institute - doing everything for these settlements, coming to this damned vault for supplies… it’s all a distraction. It’s something to keep her going. I thought it was because Shaun was dead but it’s _worse_.” He looked at Deacon with an expression of true malice. “And you let her go through it alone when you could have helped.”

Deacon sighed, feeling the familiar flood of guilt wash over him. “What was I supposed to say? How do you even start that conversation?”

MacCready looked down. “I don’t know. But you should have tried.” He looked at Deacon again. “How _did_ you find out, anyway?” 

Deacon smirked. “They say that dead men tell no tales, and that’s true. However, it doesn’t mean that dead men don’t get tales told to them.”

_Deacon had been into Vault 111 before. He knew his way around enough to keep his presence a secret from Nora - carefully timing the elevator to avoid running into her, using numerous stealth boys to stay undetected. Sure, he could wait around outside til she came out, but curiosity had got the better of him._

_If Nora were to tell anyone what she’d found in the Institute, it would be her late husband._

_He silently snuck behind one of the cryopods to get a clear view of Nora, standing in front of her husband’s pod. Deacon shivered, and not just from the cold._

_“Nate, I found him,” said Nora, her shaky voice echoing in the underground tomb. “I found Shaun. After they… after they shot you and took him, they refroze me. I thought it was for ten years, but I was wrong - it was sixty. Our baby is _sixty_ , Nate.”_

_Deacon really hadn’t seen that one coming._

_“And not just that - the Institute, the people who took him. They raised him. They raised him and now he’s their _leader_. He’s the one responsible for all the horrible things happening to the people in the Commonwealth, all the Institute's crimes - synth slavery, kidnapping, replacing people with copies, all of it. I asked him about it and he assured me it’s for the greater good. And maybe it is - but not the greater good of everyone. Just the good of those living underground.”_

_Oh. Oh no._

_Nora was openly crying now. “Nate, I told him about you. How you never got to see him grow up. And when he talked about your death - it was like he didn’t care. He called it ‘an unfortunate piece of collateral damage’. He’s not our son anymore, Nate. He’s not our baby. He’s something else. He’s someone else and…. I told him I couldn’t support what he was doing, and he forced me out. Said the next time we saw each other, we’d be enemies.”_

_Deacon's first thought was that the Railroad had missed out on a golden opportunity. If only they'd managed to convince Nora to play along and be a double-agent. He felt guilty at the thought almost immediately, but knew that was how Desdemona would see it. At least they could be sure now that Nora wasn’t working for the Institute. Whether or not her loyalty lay with the Railroad was yet to be determined, but that wasn’t something he wanted to think about now._

_Not for the first time since Nora returned from the Institute, he wished he could reach out and comfort his friend. At the same time, he wasn’t sure he’d know what to say. What to do._

_“I can’t believe what our baby’s become,” Nora said, her voice growing stronger. “I wish you were here and could help me figure this out. I don’t know what to do. I can’t… I can’t support what he’s doing but… I don’t want to hurt him. And if our paths cross again, I might have to. What kind of mother doesn’t support her child? What kind of person am I?”_

A good one, _Deacon thinks._

_“But if we’d raised him, if we’d had that chance… if he hadn’t been stolen from us and brainwashed, he wouldn’t think it was okay to do what he’s doing. Would he? Or would he have always believed it? I don’t know what to think anymore - how much of him is shaped by how he was raised? How much of him is shaped by our genetics? How will we ever know?”_

_Deacon wasn’t a hugger usually, but right now, giving his friend a hug was at the top of his wish list. This was horrible to watch. He’d almost decided he’d heard enough, when he caught her next words._

_“I can’t tell any of the people I’m travelling with. They won’t understand. I’ll tell them he’s dead - because when it comes down to it, that’s the truth. My baby doesn’t exist anymore. There’s just an old man who’d happily see the surface world burn if it protected what he’d built underground. You’re the only one I can talk to about this.” Nora rubbed her face on the sleeve of her vault suit. “I wish you were here, Nate. But I’m also glad you never got to see this, never had to go through this. Sometimes I wish I were with you.”_

_Okay, if she were seriously thinking along those lines, then subterfuge be damned, Deacon_ would _stop her if he had to._

_“I know you’d want me to keep going, keep being brave, so that’s what I’m going to do,” Nora said determinedly. “It’s so different here to the way it was - you’d barely recognise it. You have to fight to survive. People kill and steal and fight all the time just to get by and it’s terrifying - but there are people here who give me hope. I’ve got friends here, Nate, good friends - friends who have my back when I need them. Well, I think they do. I hope they do. Sometimes I think that I’m just being really naive but they’ve all done so much for me and I’ve tried to help where I can.”_

_Deacon caught a better glimpse of Nora’s face and found her smiling sadly. “I told you about MacCready when I first hired him, didn’t I? He’s a hell of a shot - saved my ass more times than I can count. We’d been traveling together for awhile when he told me that his son was sick and he knew where to find a cure. He’d been waiting to see if he could trust me. If I’d help him. Of course I did - we fought through all these feral ghouls to get there but we found it.” She laughed softly. “MacCready acts tough, but he’s a soft-hearted guy deep down. When we found that cure, he cried - he was so happy, so relieved, because he’d saved his son. And that gave me hope… that if we could save MacCready’s son, if we could save Duncan, then maybe I could find Shaun.”_

_Nora took in a deep breath and continued, tears welling up in her eyes again. “That’s why he can’t know. More than anyone. He’s done everything for his son - done things I can’t even imagine, just to give him a chance - and I’ve just given up on mine. He’d never understand. He’d never forgive me. And… I can’t lose him, Nate. I care about him too much. He means far, far too much to me. So this one’s between you and I, okay?” She laughed. “I feel like if you were here, you’d tell me you’d keep my secret til the grave… but it wouldn’t be as funny if you were still with me.”_

MacCready’s eyes were dangerously watery as Deacon finished his tale. “There’s nothing she can do that would make me abandon her,” he said firmly. “That’s bull- that’s ridiculous.”

Deacon sighed. “When she’s back to full health, I think the two of you need to have a serious conversation.”


	13. Chapter 13

**CURIE**

Nora’s vitals were strong. 

Once they had settled their friend into the clinic at Sunshine Tidings, Curie had set to work. She applied some more stimpaks as Nick, Danse and Isabel set up the equipment they had brought from the vault and Preston and Cait worked together to put together a generator so everything could function as best as possible. 

It certainly wasn’t as well stocked as her lab in Vault 81, or even what they’d left in Vault 99, but for wasteland standards the little clinic at Sunshine Tidings was now surprisingly high-tec. Curie made a mental note to search the deserted vault more thoroughly for medical supplies - it would be most beneficial to try to replicate this set-up at other settlements. 

Once the equipment was ready to go, Curie set about getting a more accurate read of Nora’s condition. In addition to the initial diagnosis of severe dehydration, Curie determined very quickly that Nora had been exposed to a large amount of some form of hallucinogen and had managed to source some Addictol from Hancock’s supplies to help flush her system. There were a few minor injuries that the stimpaks had nearly completely cured. However, Curie was concerned they didn’t have sophisticated enough equipment to truly understand everything Nora had been through. 

“If it were possible, I would like to perform an MRI,” Curie told Danse and Nick, who had been assigned to assist her by Preston. “But evidently, we don’t have that technology.” She turned to Danse. “Is this something the Brotherhood of Steel has access to? Mademoiselle Nora is a Knight, non? Surely they would assist.”

Danse shook his head. “Not on the Prydwen. Back in the Capital Wasteland at the Citadel, I know that’s equipment we’ve requisitioned. But I don’t imagine Elder Maxson would be particularly amenable to using Brotherhood resources to get her there.”

Nick’s voice was gruff. “And why would that be, Paladin?”

Danse looked uncomfortable and a tad embarrassed. “Elder Maxson wasn’t particularly amenable to me using Brotherhood resources to assist in Knight Pendleton’s rescue from Vault 99.”

Nick looked as surprised as a Gen 2 synth could. “Way I hear it, you arrived here in a Brotherhood vertibird.”

Danse blushed. “One of the Sergeants owed me a favor. I called it in.”

Nick chuckled. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Curie frowned. “Monsieur Paladin, are you… how do you say, ah-wol?” 

“AWOL?” Danse clarified. 

“Oui.”

He shook his head. “Not officially, no. As a Paladin, I have a certain degree of freedom with my missions, and I was tasked to supervise Knight Pendleton’s endeavours to the best of my abilities. I feel that ensuring her safety falls well within the perimeters of that task.”

“Does Maxson know you’re here?” asked Nick. 

“ _Elder_ Maxson knows I am, here, yes,” Danse clarified. “He simply did not feel it was a wise use of Brotherhood resources to supply the additional troops and firepower I requested in order to secure Knight Pendleton’s extraction from the vault.”

From Danse’s tone, Curie could tell that the Paladin did not agree with his superior officer but would not voice any further negative opinions. Such was the life of a soldier. Curie understood the military - she had worked with them in the past - and rather admired the loyalty Paladin Danse showed to the organisation. She hoped that they appreciated all he had given to their cause. Such devotion should be acknowledged.

“No offense,” Nick began, “but I feel like any additional firepower on this mission would have been more hassle than it was worth. And we got her out in the end, didn’t we?” 

Danse nodded curtly. “We did. I am only disappointed I wasn’t able to assist in the operation more.”

“Oh non, Monsieur, you were most helpful,” Curie insisted. “I was able to perform my field medic duties to my full potential due to your care. Thank you very much.”

Danse blushed. “Just doing my job, ma’am.”

Curie quite liked that he’d stopped calling her ‘unit’ and started calling her ‘ma’am’. 

“Back to this MRI business,” said Nick. “I’m hoping it’s not something she’ll need, that there’s no permanent damage, but as far as I can see there’s no way to tell for sure without it. Danse - if it were a question of life or death, would the Elder allow a vertibird to take her to the Capital Wasteland for an MRI?” 

Danse fixed Nick with a determined look. “If it were a question of life or death, I would do everything in my power to make him see reason. I’m her commanding officer - and her friend. I will always have her back.”

Curie fel her stomach churn uneasily. These physical responses to emotion were certainly fascinating, and normally she would relish further study, but all she could focus on was how sick to the stomach her worry was making her. If Nora, who had been so kind and so selfless, did not recover from this ordeal, Curie did not know how this human body would react. Which was, in itself, even more unsettling. She had felt loss and sorrow in her robotic form, yes, but this was something different. Something new. 

“Is there anything else you can do for her now?” Nick asked. 

Curie shook her head. “We have flushed her system with Addictol to counteract the effects of the hallucinogen. We are keeping her hydrated. Now we must observe and wait.” She sighed. “I admit, it is the waiting that is most difficult.”

Nick nodded. “Do you need to be here to observe, Curie? Or could I convince you to lend your medical expertise elsewhere for an hour or so?” 

Curie thought about it. “I do not believe she will wake for some hours. I have given her a strong dose of Med-X for pain, the effects should last another 8 hours at least. What do you require?”

Nick sighed. “There are still people in that vault. Part of the experiment. Nora would want us to do something about it.”

Curie’s stomach churned uncomfortably yet again. “Of course,” she replied. “I will gather my things.”

**NICK**

The last thing he wanted was to be going underground again, yet here he was, approaching the entrance to that damned vault again as the sun began to set. The vault door was open, a pair of settlers loading up a Brahmin just outside with a variety of wooden crates. Nick paused to look and the settler was happy to explain. 

“Mr. MacCready helped us organise it all,” she said, blushing a tad as she explained the sorting system. “We scrapped everything we could find down to the basics so we could use them in other things. He said he didn’t make any sense to lug back a heavy desk fan when all that’s really useful are the screws.”

“MacCready, huh?” Nick mused. “I’ll be sure to compliment him on his, er, knack for organisation.”

“He’s been working really hard,” the settler gushed, tucking her dirty blonde hair self-consciously behind her ear. “Seems really determined to get this place cleared out.”

“We won’t keep you,” Nick replied. “Got some things to take care of down below. You got someone accompanying you back to Sunshine Tidings? It’s getting dark.”

“My brother’s coming back in a minute,” she assured him. “He’s a good shot. Not as good as shot as Mr. MacCready, from what I hear. Guy’s a bit of a legend.”

Nick thanked her again and headed down into the vault, chuckling to himself. 

“What is funny?” Curie asked as she followed him through the entrance into the now-familiar main corridor of Vault 99.

“That girl back there,” said Nick. “Seems like she’s got a bit of a crush on our mercenary friend.”

Curie’s lips twitched. “I do not think Mademoiselle Nora is the type to share.” At Nick’s look, her eyes widened. “I am sorry, I was trying to make a joke. Perhaps I do not quite understand humor yet?” 

Nick blinked, and then laughed. “Just didn’t know you had it in you, Curie. That was a good one.”

“Merci.”

The door that had given them so much trouble had been jimmied to stay open. As they approached the first room, they caught sight of MacCready in a corner, dismantling a table into transportable parts. He looked up as they entered and went pale as a ghost.

“Nora,” he said, voice panicked. “Did something happen? Is she okay? Curie, why aren’t you with her?” 

“Nora’s resting,” Nick said calmly, trying to reassure the younger man. “Curie’s done everything she can, now all that’s going to help is time. Question is, what are you still doing here?” 

“What does it look like? I’m taking everything in here that’s not nailed down, and some stuff that is.” MacCready ran his hand through his hair, nearly knocking off his hat. Nick felt a moment of compassion for the kid - he was clearly exhausted. Piper and Deacon had headed back to the settlement hours ago, yet here he was, still diligently working. 

Nick had been around for long enough to know distractionary tactics when he saw them. 

“How’s that working out for you?” Nick couldn’t help but reply, as deadpan as possible.

“Forget about me, what are you guys doing here?” 

Nick gestured to the prone bodies in the loungers. “We’re here to do something about these people.”

MacCready visibly deflated, looking even more exhausted than before. He nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. I was going to come get Curie later, when things had settled down… Nora comes first, though.” He hesitated. “She is gonna be okay, right?” 

Nick and Curie exchanged a look and Curie turned back to MacCready. “At this point, I am unsure. We have no way of knowing if she has had any damage to the brain after all she has gone through. But her vitals are strong.”

“She’s strong,” Nick added. 

MacCready looked down for a minute, then looked back, obviously drawing on all the energy he could muster. “Okay. I’ve been in here for a bit now, so here’s what I know. There’s a terminal over there that seems to be hooked up to… whatever that is, which is hooked up to the loungers. I don’t know much about all this science crap, but I haven’t let anyone touch anything that’s connected to these poor bast- people. Maybe Nick should start with the terminal and Curie can examine the bodies… the people in the loungers?” 

“You have been most helpful, Monsieur MacCready,” said Curie with a smile. “That is an excellent suggestion.” 

MacCready shrugged. “I aim to please.”

Nick followed MacCready’s advice and moved to the terminal, which he managed to hack in only a few attempts. He set about looking through the log entries, all attributed to a ‘Doctor X’.

> [10-23-2077]
> 
> Today’s the day. Our test subjects have been brought into the vault and my research can finally begin. No doubt Vault Tec will be keeping tabs on their official vaults throughout the process of their many experiments, but I am one of the fortunate few to be guaranteed untainted data. A thrilling concept. Nevertheless, I shall remain anonymous in these entries.
> 
> My test subjects saw the bombs fall as they entered the vault by design. The fear of atomic war runs deep in the heart of every American, and fear is what I intend to unlock - a fine way to begin. They were then sedated through the use of airborne gas and placed in these specially designed loungers, which will allow me to see an audiovisual representation of what they are experiencing in their subconscious minds. I will begin by observing to understand my subjects, with the goal of eventually tailoring their individual experience to dig into their own most visceral fears. 

“Jesus,” muttered Nick, as he moved on to the next entry.

> [10-23-2092]
> 
> This experiment has now been running for 15 years and I find myself intrigued at the results thus far. I have been waking the subjects periodically to see how they respond - once a month, to be exact - and at this stage, only 20 of the initial 30 subjects are lucid in any way upon regaining consciousness. 10 of those lucid subjects appeared to be aware of what was going on and begged not to be sedated again. This would defeat the point of my research, so their requests were understandably not granted. 
> 
> Out of the 10 subjects who are not lucid and had no response to being awakened, 7 are still providing acceptable results that can be recorded through their audiovisual interface. The remaining 3 produce only static, though all vital functions appear to still be proceeding as normal. 

Nick was fairly certain he couldn’t stomach reading all of the entries in the terminal, despite not actually having a stomach. He scrolled down to the final entry, which appeared to dated more or less recently after a long gap without entries.

> [03-11-2288]
> 
> I haven’t used this interface in a long time, given that my robobrain body is more than capable of containing all the data I require. It has been 100 years since any of my subjects have regained consciousness, despite continuing to attempt to wake them once a month as per my initial experiment perimeters. However, they are all still alive in the technical sense of the word, as all vital signs are still being recorded, and 18 of the 30 original subjects are still providing some form of result through their audiovisual interfaces. 
> 
> In the past 50 years, I have had a total of 12 additional subjects show up in my vault, all who have not lasted more than a year. In order to continue my experiments, I require a particularly healthy brain, as unaffected by the radiation on the surface as possible. I have reconfigured my robot companions to scan for such a subject and remove anyone not meeting these parameters by force. 
> 
> Thinking back to my initial mission statement for this experiment is proving difficult, given the time that has passed. However, I can say now without a doubt that through my experiments, I have developed a long term, highly effective means of torture. It is almost a shame my vault is on no official records - it is much less likely that a newly established government will know were to locate me so my research can be shared and have real-life military applications. I can only hope that as we expel unsuitable subjects, the legend of Vault 99 begins to spread and the right people discover my work. I have waited this long, I am prepared to wait longer. 

“Monsieur Valentin?”

Nick turned to see Curie approaching, her face ashen. “What is it, Curie?”

“All these people… I am certain they will not wake.” 

As Nick explained to the others what he’d read in the terminal, he could see MacCready’s face practically drain of color and Curie become more and more distraught. 

“Fuck,” said MacCready, heartfelt and full of feeling. “I mean… no, I don’t think there’s another word for it.”

“He should be ashamed to call himself a scientist,” said Curie, voice full of emotion. “Science without compassion, without ethics - it does not help anyone. It does not _improve._ I too have dedicated my life to my research, but this… I would not dream of this. Mon Dieu.”

“So what do we do?” MacCready asked. “You’re saying they’re alive, but they’re… trapped.”

“As much as it pains me to say, I believe that the most humane course of action is to terminate their vital functions,” Curie responded sadly. “Let them be laid to rest. What has happened to them… it is horrible.” 

“I agree,” said Nick. 

MacCready nodded. “Can you… can you do something that’ll make it quick and painless?” 

“Yes,” Curie replied. “If there is a chemistry lab still intact, I can manufacture a compound that will give them peace.” 

“Alright,” Nick agreed. “Just let us know what you need and we’ll get it for you.”

All of a sudden, MacCready stormed determinedly out of the room. Nick and Curie exchanged a look then followed him, through another room full of loungers to the room they’d found Nora in. Nick watched as MacCready pulled out a combat knife from his pocket and approached the prone robobrain. 

In one swift movement, he smashed through the glass and thrust the knife into the centre of the organic brain. 

“This isn’t happening to anyone else,” he said firmly as he twisted his knife. “Never again.”

It might not have been how he'd have handled it, but Nick didn't disagree with the sentiment.


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

**PRESTON**

The General didn’t wake up the next morning. 

Curie assured the group that Nora’s vitals remained strong and she was showing signs of recovery. Although Curie had expected the General to regain consciousness sooner rather than later, she recommended that no one panic. It had been an ordeal and some recovery time was normal. 

Not that knowing all of that made the waiting any easier. 

Preston hadn’t spent a lot of time at Sunshine Tidings Co-op and vowed to make sure he popped by more often in future. The settlers were good people who’d done everything they could to accommodate the influx of mouths to feed, as well as assisting in moving materials from the now empty vault back to the settlement to be sorted for the supply lines. 

In return, Preston had every intention of helping the settlers with anything they needed - defences, harvesting crops, establishing trade-lines. To his surprise, every time he asked if there was something he could do, he found himself given the same response: MacCready had it covered.

The mercenary had thrown himself into tasks he’d complained about only weeks earlier with what the settlers seemed to be taking as enthusiasm (but Preston privately thought was closer to grim determination). MacCready had managed to organise everyone into a well-oiled machine - Hancock and Piper working on crops, Nick and Deacon building a weapons store and Isabel upgrading turrets to be more effective with the help of Paladin Danse. Other settlers had been roped into jobs here and there and the entire settlement was a flurry of activity. 

Preston wasn’t about to complain. Everything that was being done was something that needed doing. He hadn’t expected it from MacCready, of all people, but he wasn’t about to look a gift brahmin in the mouth. Without too much fuss, he joined in with the work Cait and MacCready were doing building a solid fence around the entire settlement. 

“Big open space like this needs more defence than it’s got,” MacCready commented as they built. “I’m thinking we should build something nice and high on top of that big warehouse in the middle - put up some missile turrets, get some good range for anything nasty that comes along.”

“Solid plan,” Preston agreed, fastening an old tire to wood panels with some steel. “It’s going to make a huge difference to these settlers. You’ve done well, MacCready.”

He shrugged, not bothering to look at Preston as he replied. “Yeah, well, it’s important to Nora, so…”

Preston didn’t push it. 

That evening, they all gathered for a meal together. The settler who ran the bar (Lana? Lara?) had made a huge batch of vegetable soup with the harvested crops, which everyone ate eagerly. Sitting and talking around the fire as the sun set, the atmosphere was almost pleasant. Almost. 

Curie came out from the clinic to join them for a bit to eat and to let them know that Nora had not yet regained consciousness. 

When the next day dawned, Nora’s condition still hadn’t changed. The razorgrain and mutfruit porridge Lara had prepared for breakfast was probably quite tasty but felt like chalk in Preston’s mouth. Once again, Curie joined them for a meal and gave an update on the General. 

“Vital signs are still strong,” Curie assured them. “But as there is no real way to assess trauma to her brain, all we can do now is wait.”

“What about that MRI you were talking to us about?” asked Nick, giving Danse a pointed look. “Should we send Danse back to the blimp to make that happen?”

“It’s an airship, not a blimp.”

“Same difference.”

Curie hesitated. “I… do not know. This is all very unprecedented. I would say that if she has not regained consciousness in, say, a week-”

“A WEEK?” 

Everyone flinched at MacCready’s outburst. He glared at Curie, eyes full of fire. 

“Let her finish,” said Cait quietly. “Curie, what happens if she’s not awake in a week?”

“Then we go to the Brotherhood,” Curie finished, looking nervously at MacCready. “And… well, we may have to prepare ourselves for the worst.”

Everyone was silent for a moment. Then MacCready stood up suddenly. “That fence isn’t going to build itself,” he announced as he walked off. 

Hancock let out a low whistle. “Poor kid.”

“Hey, he could be drinking himself blind,” Cait pointed out. “Instead, he’s building a fence. Cut the man some slack, would you?” 

“Do you think a week is too long to wait?” Danse asked Curie. “Surely the longer she’s unconscious, the less likely it is she’ll wake up. I could go back to the Brotherhood today. We’ll need time to organise things.”

Curie looked thoughtful. “I do not want to… how do you say… jump the gun? I know that the Brotherhood is very powerful. And that Nora does not like to be in debt. But I am somewhat concerned. I believe she will be fine, given time, but... perhaps if she is not awake this time tomorrow, you return to the Brotherhood and begin negotiations. That is acceptable, non?” 

“Curie’s the doctor,” Preston agreed. “If she says that’s the best option, I’m inclined to agree with her.”

Danse nodded. “Alright. We’ll have to figure out some way to maintain communication while I’m on route.” 

“I may have a solution to that?” said Isabel hesitantly. They all turned to look at her and she blushed. “I, uh, I found a box of Pip-Boys in the vault. They’re early models, not as high-tech as Nora’s, and the technology is notorious finicky for these bad boys, but they do have a radio attached. If I can modify them with a microphone pickup, then we can use them for 2 way communication.”

The group perked up. “What do you need to make that happen?” Preston asked, intrigued. 

“Oh, it looks like you’ve got everything here,” she replied enthusiastically. “With all the stuff we’ve salvaged from the vault, plus stuff that was already here from Nora’s salvage runs - I’m pretty sure I’ve got everything I need.” She smiled. “What’s more, it looks like there are enough Pip-Boys here for all of you who travel with Nora to have one. If I can get them all upgraded, then I bet that’ll be useful for if you’re trying to get hold of each other - there are a lot of you, and you’re spread out all over the Commonwealth.” 

“That would actually be incredibly useful,” said Piper. “And if we all had them, we could communicate with each other, not just Nora - if someone gets into a bad situation when they’re traveling and needs back-up.”

“Dunno,” said Cait with a shrug. “Gotta admit, anything from that vault gives me the creeps.”

“I’ll make sure it’s safe,” Isabel promised. 

Preston nodded. “I think it’s a great idea if you can make it work. Do you need help?” 

“I get along pretty well with machines,” Nick said dryly. “I’m willing to lend a hand.” 

The morning continued without any major incidents - and without Nora regaining consciousness. The group fell back into their roles from the previous day, Preston taking some time to build the tower MacCready had recommended on top of the warehouse without falling to his death. With a combination of elaborate wiring, duct tape and a whole lot of hope, there were fully functional 2 missile turrets in the centre of Sanctuary by the time the early afternoon rolled around, ready to take out anything that so much as looked funny at the settlers. 

As their tasks drew to a close, the core group of Nora’s companions trickled in to sit by the campfire one by one as the afternoon went by. By about 4pm, everyone except MacCready was gathered around. Preston asked Cait where he was and she sighed. 

“Those fences are fine. They’re solid and will definitely keep things out. He just won’t stop.”

“Gotta admit, it’s been good to keep my mind off things,” said Hancock, bottle of moonshine in hand. “Fuck that bastard robobrain in that damn vault.”

“Do you think Blue’s going to be okay?” asked Piper, her voice small. “I know Curie says we don’t need to worry yet, but… she should be awake now, right?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Nick said with a sigh. “Hell, I hope she’ll be okay. She’s a tough dame but she’s been through the wringer.”

“What she went through,” Deacon began, his voice careful, “is essentially torture. Sure, he wrapped it up in science, but at the end of the day you’ve gotta call a spade a spade. The fact that she’s still unconscious… it could just be her body’s way of trying to deal with it. That’s the best case scenario.”

“What exactly _is_ the worst case scenario here?” Preston found himself asking. 

“The worst case scenario is that she never wakes up. And we have to make a decision on what we’re going to do with her, like we did with those poor bast- people in that vault,” said MacCready, sounding anguished. Preston turned to look at him - he hadn’t even heard him arrive. The younger man looked exhausted, devastated, and very, very scared. 

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group. MacCready sighed and sat down next to Hancock, taking a cigarette out his pocket and lighting it. He took in a drag and blew out the smoke slowly. 

“You’re not wrong,” Deacon said finally. “And I hope that’s not a decision we’re going to have to make.”

**NORA**

The petunias in the park are more beautiful than she’s ever seen them. 

Nora sits on a bench, admiring the public garden. Nearby, Shaun is playing on the swing set, using his knees to pump himself higher, higher, higher. The sun is warm on her skin and she takes a deep breath to enjoy the fresh, untainted air. 

“Beautiful,” a voice murmurs. 

She looks up to see Nate approaching. He’s in his full dress uniform, as handsome as he’s ever been. She feels her heart flutter as he leans down and kisses her. Soft. Gentle. Tender. As if he has all the time in the world. 

But he doesn’t. 

“I never got to say goodbye to you,” she says sadly, drawing her fingers over his face. “There’s so much I wanted to say.”

He smiles and sits next to her, putting his arm around her and pressing his lips to the top of her head. “You can say it all now. I’m not going anywhere.”

“But you are,” she insists. “This isn’t really happening. It’s all an illusion. Someone’s controlling this, so nothing I do or say here is real.”

He laughs softly. “It’s not an illusion, love. It’s a dream. There’s no one here but us. You can say what you need to.”

She isn’t sure if she should believe him, but she does. 

“I wanted nothing more than to grow old with you,” she tells him, letting herself relax into his embrace. “To raise Shaun with you. Maybe have some more children. I wanted to raise a family with you so much, Nate. And all that disappeared so quickly. It was ripped from me in an instant. For the longest time, I didn’t know how I was going to go on without you.”

“But you did,” Nate replies, his voice encouraging. “Because you’re strong and brave and tough. You gunned down a Deathclaw, for god’s sake. I don’t even know if I could have done that single-handedly.”

Nora laughs. “I bet you could have.”

“You do what you’ve gotta do at the time,” he agrees. “Whether it’s war in a military sense or war as in a fight to survive, war never changes.”

“Do you remember when we first met?” Nora asks him. “That stupid blind date that Christine set us up on?”

It’s Nate’s turn to laugh. “Oh, I remember. I tried so hard to convince Samuel that I didn’t need to be set up on a blind date, I was doing fine on my own.”

“And _I_ tried to convince Christine that blind dates were ridiculous and pretended I was horribly offended she’d even suggest it.” Nora grins. “But I still went.”

“I’m glad you did.”

“I’m glad _you_ did.” 

Nate laughs again. “The minute you spilled an entire bottle of ketchup on the waiter then managed to convince him that he should give us our meals for free, despite you not getting even a splash on you - that was when I knew you were the one.”

“Ah, so you only liked me for my ability to get free meals,” Nora says, her smile so wide she thinks her face will break. “The truth comes out, after all this time!”

They sit in companionable silence for a moment. She inhales deeply, basking in the smell, the feel of him. “I miss you so much, Nathaniel Pendleton.”

“I miss you too, Nora Davidson-Pendleton.”

She laughs. “I’m glad I didn’t insist on the double-barrel. That’s a mouthful.”

“Yeah, but you’re _my_ mouthful.”

They look over at Shaun, who is happily swinging. Her heart tugs a little. 

“I wish this were real,” she says. “I wish we’d had this. Even just for a little while longer than we did. Getting to see Shaun’s first word, his first step - heck, his first time-out. We missed out on so much.”

“As much as I’d love to stay here with you forever,” says Nate, rubbing her shoulder gently, “you’ve got places to be, General.”

She sighs. “ _Could_ I stay with you here forever?”

Nate shakes his head. “No, sweetheart. You could, but it wouldn’t be real. It wouldn’t stay like this. Eventually, it’d just… fade away. Or stop altogether. And what you’re doing out there in the real world? It’s too important.”

“I’m just one person,” she argues. “What difference can I make?”

Nate looks at her. “Are you kidding? You’re out there, trying to make things right for people. Giving them hope.”

“I don’t feel like I have all that much hope to give them,” she confesses. 

“That’s the thing about hope,” he says, stroking her hair. “It’s not a finite resource. Hope spreads. Hope grows. You give someone hope, doesn’t mean you lose it. It’s a lot like love, in that way.” He tilts her chin toward him and kisses her passionately. “Loving someone doesn’t mean you stop loving someone else.”

“I love _you_ ,” she says as he breaks off the kiss.

“I know you do,” says Nate warmly. “But I’m not the only one you love. Not anymore.”

“Nate…” She looks at him, really _looks_ , for any trace of jealousy, of anger. There’s wistfulness, sure, there’s sadness but mostly it’s acceptance. And a deep, deep love that neither time nor radiation can destroy. 

“It’s okay,” he says with a smile. “I get it. You shouldn’t be alone, Nora. It’s a scary world you’re in - there’s so much that can hurt you, discourage you. If I could be there with you, helping you through everything, you know I would. But I can’t, because I’m gone.”

“I wish you weren’t.”

“Yeah, me too.” He sighs. “You’ve got some pretty great people in your corner, though. I think I’d like them a lot.”

“I think you would too,” she admits. “You and Danse would be soldier buddies.”

Nate laughs. “Yeah, I think we’d see eye to eye on a few things.” He looks thoughtful. “And Preston’s a stand-up guy. I like what he’s doing. I like the way he sees the world - there aren’t enough people like him around.”

“You’ve got that right,” Nora agrees. “He’s one of a kind. Don’t know why he insisted I be the General - he’d have done a fine job himself.”

“I know exactly why he chose you,” says Nate warmly. “Don’t sell yourself short.”

“Once you get past the metal, Nick’s a heck of a guy,” Nora points out. “You’d like him.”

Nate nods. “Yeah, I think I would. Good sense of humor. Wants to do right by people. I’d get along with Hancock, too - under the ridiculous outfit and the drug habit, he’s all about making a difference, too. So’s Piper.” He grins. “Doesn’t hurt that Piper’s easy on the eyes.”

Nora gasps in mock scandal. “Nathaniel Pendleton!”

“Hey, I don’t see you denying it,” he teases. Nora blushes. He grins again. “Plus, you know my weakness for dark-haired, silver-tongued women.” He leans in and kisses her. 

“What about Deacon?” Nora asks. “What’s your take on him?”

Nate thinks about it for a moment, then replies. “I like having all the information, so I think I’d get a bit frustrated with him at times. But he’s working for a good cause and even though he’s a bit mysterious for my tastes, the sense of humor makes up for it.” 

Nora nods. “My thoughts exactly.” She’s loving this conversation, she really is. “Okay then - Strong. Supermutant who’s searching for the milk of human kindness because someone decided to teach him Shakespeare.”

Nate cracks up laughing. “Hey, different strokes for different folks! So he’s a bit out there - who isn’t in the post-apocalyptic world? Besides, he’s proven to be loyal to you, right? If he looks after you, he’s good in my book.”

“Cait’s a bit rough around the edges, but she’s loyal too,” says Nora. 

“I’m a sucker for an Irish accent,” Nate adds cheekily. “That, and she’s good in a fight. Boy is she good in a fight. Even back in the army, I’ve never seen anyone quite that scrappy. As for Curie… she’s a heck of a lady, who’s had a heck of an adventure. I think whoever created Miss Nanny units back in the day would be proud of her.”

They’re quiet for a moment. Eventually, Nora speaks up. “You know who I’m going to ask about next, don’t you.”

Nate sighs. “Yeah, I do.”

“Nate…”

“MacCready’s a good man,” Nate says firmly. “Sure, he’s made some mistakes. Sure, he’s got a smart mouth. But under all that, he’s like you - a parent, in a situation outside of their control, trying to do the best they can. He obviously cares about you. And you care about him.”

“He’s not you,” says Nora simply.

“No, he’s not,” Nate replies. “But he doesn’t have to be. Just as much as you don’t have to be Lucy. I’m pretty sure he’s not looking for a replacement for his dead wife - he’s looking for a partner to make a future with. Someone to love, to protect, to be protected by. And that’s what you need right now, isn’t it?” He strokes her hair again. “You’re a hell of a woman, Nora. And even though you’re strong and independent, you deserve to be cared for. You deserve to find love again.”

There’s a lump in her throat she tries to swallow down. Her eyes begin to fill with tears. “Thank you, Nate. I needed to hear that from you.”

“You’re going to be alright,” Nate tells her fondly. “I’m always going to be with you, no matter what.”

As the sun sets, they share one last kiss.

**MACCREADY**

It was nearly 3am but he still couldn’t sleep. He’d walked around the perimeter a few times, checked his fences, reorganised the supply shed, even weeded some tatoes by the light of the moon, and still couldn’t figure out what to do with himself. Lara had already shut the bar, so there was no chance of a drink. Maybe it was time to do what he’d been putting off for the last 2 days. 

He headed to the clinic. 

Curie was dozing in the corner on an armchair but she woke up immediately when he came in. “Monsieur MacCready?” she asked drowsily. “It is very late.” 

“I can’t sleep,” he admitted sheepishly. “So I, uh, thought I’d see her. How’s she doing.”

Curie sighed. “No change. If she is not awake tomorrow, Monsieur Danse will return to the Brotherhood airship and negotiate a scan to determine if there is brain damage.”

MacCready nodded. He knew that was on the cards. Didn’t mean he liked it. “What’s your opinion?” he asked instead. 

“It is possible,” she admitted. “I had hoped that she would wake by now. Yet… it is also possible that what she needs is time. She could awaken at any moment. Therefore, I observe.”

“Do you want me to keep watch?” he offered. “You should get some sleep.”

Curie yawned, then nodded. “You should also sleep, Monsieur MacCready. You have been most busy these past days. The settlers here are most grateful for your hard work.”

“I didn’t do it for them,” he said simply. “Do you want to head to the bunkhouse? I can come get you if there’s any change, it’s not far.”

“That is a good idea,” she replied. “I am no use to Mademoiselle Nora if I am too tired to perform my medical duties to the best of my abilities. Bonne nuit, Monsieur MacCready.”

“Sure,” he replied. She left quickly and he moved the armchair closer to Nora’s bedside, then settled in. 

Nora was still pale, but not as grey as she’d been when in the lounger in the vault. The equipment hooked up to her beeped gently. She was so, so very still, which unsettled him to no end. 

“Sorry I haven’t been in until now,” he said to her unconscious form. “I didn’t… I didn’t want to scare you. But it’s been nearly 3 days and you’re starting to scare _me_ now, so… here I am. If you wake up and don’t want to see me, I’ll go, but for now… I just want to see for myself you’re still breathing.”

At that moment, he _swore_ he saw her hand move. “Nora? Nora, can you hear me?” 

His heart leapt as she opened her eyes groggily, looking at him in confusion. “Nate?” 

“Not Nate,” he replied gently, feeling his gut clench. “Just me, MacCready.” 

“MacCready,” she echoed weakly. He smiled at the sound of her voice saying his name. 

“Hang on, let me get Curie,” he said, standing up, only to be stopped by her hand grabbing his arm with surprising strength. 

“Don’t go,” said Nora, eyes becoming clearer as she looked at him. “Please, just... tell me what happened.”

He sighed and sat back down. “Where do you want me to start?”


	15. Chapter 15

**NORA**

“It’s usually best to start from the beginning.”

“Well boss, that depends on what you remember.” He looked at her, the smile fading from his face into a neutral expression that looked too carefully constructed to be doing anything but hiding something. “Do you remember us going into Vault 99?” 

Nora thought about it for a moment. Thinking, remembering was hard - it was like trying to listen to someone talk underwater. Fragments and images of memories came back, slowly but surely. She closed her eyes and tried to remember where it started. “We went in to look for supplies,” she replied slowly. “We heard about it from that trader. You thought it was a terrible idea but came anyway.”

“Hate to say I told you so, but-”

“Liar,” she interrupted with a roll of her eyes. “You _love_ to say I told you so.” That got a laugh out of him, cracking through his guarded face. “I’m guessing it didn’t go terrible well.” She closed her eyes and tried to think. “Robots,” she said finally. “There were robots.”

“There were robots,” he confirmed. “There was this pre-war Vault-Tech scientist who turned himself into a robobrain so he wouldn’t die. He had a bunch of robots with him. They were looking for someone with the right kind of brain for his experiments.”

“I’m guessing I had the right kind of brain?” 

“Yeah.” MacCready stopped for a moment, took a deep breath and continued. “They knocked you out and took you. Dragged me out of the room we were in, locked me out - no matter what I did, I couldn’t get back in. I had to go back to the settlement and radio for help.” 

“How long was I down there?” Nora asked, not liking where this was going in the slightest. 

MacCready sighed. “About 3 days. I’m… I’m sorry we couldn’t get there sooner. We needed Valentine to hack the terminal to get back in. You know how bad I am with that science crap.”

She remembered asking him to hack a relatively simple terminal once and it taking him nearly an hour. She probably should have stepped in sooner but at the time, it had just been too funny to watch him trying _not_ to swear at the computer. 

“I’m sorry,” MacCready said again, before continuing with what she recognised as false bravado. “Anyway, once we had the troops rallied, we all kicked some robot butt and got you out of there safely. You were… well, you’ve been unconscious for a couple of days, everyone’s been really worried.” He stood up. “Speaking of which, I should go get Curie - I said I’d let her know if you woke up.”

Nora sighed. “MacCready…”

“You’ve been unconscious for 2 days,” he replied stubbornly, avoiding her eyes. “Curie needs to have a look at you, make sure you’re okay.”

She let out an exasperated sigh as he moved toward the door. “You’re not seriously going to tell me I just spent 3 days trapped in another Vault-Tec experiment and then leave, are you?” 

He stopped. She waited. 

Finally, finally he turned around and sat back in the chair next to her, still not looking at her directly. Nora took the moment to get more comfortable in the bed, sitting up as best she could. Bracing herself for the worst. 

**MACCREADY**

He didn’t know how to have this conversation. He didn’t want to have this conversation. He’d been avoiding thinking about it for the past few days, pushing it all out of his mind, throwing himself into projects around the settlement to distract himself.

But she was right - he couldn’t just leave her wondering. He had to tell her something. 

He looked up from the chair to see that Nora had managed to move herself to a more upright position. She was still paler and thinner than she should be, her dark hair hanging in front of her face. 

He fought the urge to tuck the errant strands of hair behind her ear. To see her face better, reassure himself that she was real, she was here. 

That wasn’t something he had any right to do. 

“The Vault-Tec scientist had been there since before the war,” he began. Slowly. Carefully. _Keep to the facts. Don’t run your mouth like the idiot you are._ “He’s been performing experiments, trying to get inside people’s heads. Find out what they’re afraid of, make them experience it and see how much of it they can take before they lose their minds.”

All the hard-earned color in Nora’s face drained in an instant. “There were other people there,” she said, as if remembering it for the first time. “What happened to them?” 

“We couldn’t do anything for them except end their suffering,” he said as gently as possible. “I’m sorry.”

Nora looked sick for a moment, then nodded. “It’s not your fault.” She moved her hand toward him. Before she could touch him, he pulled away, trying to ignore the flare of hurt that splashed across her face as he did. 

She opened her mouth as if about to say something but he jumped in before she could. “What do you remember?”

“It’s all kind of hazy,” she admitted, moving her hand back to her side. “I’m getting flashes of things. Fragments. But I feel hazy all over - like there’s a fog in my brain.”

“That might be a good thing,” he replied. “Not remembering, I mean. Anyway, it’s over now. It doesn’t matter.”

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” she said bluntly. 

“I’m just glad we got you out. That’s all that matters.”

“Robert...”

She’d never called him Robert before. She’d called him MacCready, Mac, occasionally RJ, but never Robert. But that’s what the robobrain had called him, and it would have gotten its information from inside Nora’s head. Even Lucy hadn’t called him Robert - sometimes Bobby, sometimes RJ, but never Robert. 

A part of him warmed at the fact she had a name for him that only she used. Another part of him felt deeply ashamed. He didn’t deserve that. 

“I really think I should get Curie to have a look at you,” he said instead. 

“I’m fine. I just need you to be honest with me.”

“Nora…”

_“Please.”_

He shook his head. “This is… look, okay, I saw some things, when we came to get you out of the vault. The robobrain scientist, he had some kind of screen where he’d display what he was making you see, and it was… it was awful and if you don’t remember it, I want to spare you the details, okay?”

Nora laughed harshly. “After all this time, you think I can’t handle it? You want to spare me the horrifying details because I’m too fragile?”

“Of course I don’t think that,” he said heatedly. “I know you can handle damn near anything, Nora. I just don’t want you to have to go through that again.”

“I think I should be the judge of whether I-”

“Nora, _I_ don’t want to go through that again!” 

**NORA**

With all traces of his guarded expression gone, Nora realized with a start just how on edge MacCready was. The circles around his eyes were so dark, they almost looked like bruises, and he carried himself as though he had the entire weight of the world on his shoulders. She’d never seen him look so tired, so tense, so lost. 

Whatever that scientist had shown him had seriously shaken him up. Every fibre of her being ached to know what had happened - if she knew, maybe she could make it right. 

“I want to know,” she said. “You don’t have to tell me right now, but eventually I want to know. Maybe I’ll remember it on my own. Did anyone else see? Was anyone else with you?” 

MacCready didn’t seem to be able to look at her. “Deacon,” he muttered. “Deacon was there.”

“I’m sorry it upset you,” she said helplessly. “I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t real,” he replied with a shrug he probably intended to appear nonchalant. “I’ll get over it.”

_”Don’t touch me. You can get the fuck away from me. You’re not real.”_

The memory hit her, and all of a sudden, MacCready’s behaviour made sense. “When you found me in the vault,” she began carefully, “I thought you weren’t real, didn’t I?” 

He froze. “You remember that?” 

Nora nodded and continued. “Just now. I told you not to touch me, to get away from me. I thought it was all part of the illusion and I… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it."

“Don’t worry about it,” he muttered, still not looking at her. “It’s not important.”

“It _is_ important,” she insisted, reaching for his hand again. Brushing her hand against his skin. Instead of flinching like he’d done moments ago, he stayed very, very still. Tentatively, she clasped his hand in hers. 

He relaxed into her grip and she rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb, tracing soft circles. Trying to convey that this was okay. That she didn’t mean what she’d said. 

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” MacCready said softly, finally looking at her. 

She smirked, throwing his own words back in his face. “I knew you couldn’t live without me.” He chuckled half-heartedly in return. Without really thinking about, she pulled his hand toward her lips and pressed a gentle kiss on his knuckles. 

He blushed slightly. They sat there for a few moments in companionable silence. 

“I should really get Curie,” he said finally. “She’ll be so relieved you’re awake. We were… well, we weren’t sure if you would for a while there.”

Guilt bubbled in her. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.” He laughed weakly. “If anything, it’s mine, so I’m the last person you should be apologizing to.”

“It’s not your fault either,” she countered. “It’s just… fucking Vault Tec.”

He nodded. “Yeah.” He gave her hand an affectionate squeeze, then stood up again. “I’ll be back in just a minute. I promise.”

He let go of her hand, stood up and walked to the door, turning to look at her before he went. As if he was assuring himself she was real. She smiled at him. He smiled back - a real, honest to goodness smile. 

It warmed her through as he stepped into the night air. 

**MACCREADY**

MacCready headed toward the bunkhouse, head whirling with emotion. Relief that she was okay. Guilt she was ever hurt in the first place. Shame he couldn’t bring himself to tell her what she wanted to know. Fear that if she did remember or if he told her, she’d never look at him the same way again. 

He remembered how her lips felt on his knuckles. So soft. So warm. God, what would those lips feel like on his mouth? His neck? Other parts of him?

_Not the time for that. Focus, you idiot._

He opened the door to the bunkhouse as quietly as he could, letting his eyes adjust so he could see who he was looking for. He scanned over the sleeping bodies until he found Curie, then headed toward her, only to bump his shin on the corner of another bed and yelp in pain. 

“Jesus Christ!” he heard a drowsy Irish voice exclaim. Within seconds, he had a shotgun pointed at his head. “What the fuck do you want?” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa - it’s MacCready,” he replied hurriedly, as quietly as he could while still being heard. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you - I’m trying to find Curie.”

Thankfully, Cait lowered her shotgun. “Curie’s in the medical clinic.”

“No, she came in here to get some sleep. I’ve been watching Nora - I need to tell Curie she’s awake.”

“She’s awake?” Cait exclaimed loudly. “Nora’s awake? Why the fuck didn’t you say so?”

“Nora’s awake?” another tired voice chimed in. It took him a second to place it as Preston. “That’s fantastic!” 

A light switched on and the room filled with groans. 

“What’s going on?” asked a groggy Hancock. “Can’t be morning already.”

“Nora’s awake,” Cait informed him. “Curie! Get your cute little butt out of bed and check on our girl, will you?”

“This is wonderful news!” Curie enthused as she blinked to adjust to the sudden light. “I must see to her at once.”

“Can we see her?” Piper asked MacCready. “She’s okay?” 

“She doesn’t remember a lot of what happened,” he explained. “Just bits and pieces. But she knew who she was and who I was and remembered what happened before we went into the vault.”

“This is all very positive,” Curie replied with a wide smile. “I will go now.”

“I’ll come with you,” Cait said in a tone that brokered no arguments. MacCready simply nodded and headed back to the clinic with them, leaving the rest of the group to spread the news amongst themselves.

“You scared us half to death!” Cait practically yelled as she entered the clinic to see Nora, still where he’d left her sitting in one of the clinic beds. “Don’t you ever do that to us again, you hear me?”

“Believe me, this whole thing wasn’t on the to do list when MacCready and I headed into that vault,” Nora replied good-naturedly. “It’s good to see you too, Cait.”

“I am so very glad you are awake,” Curie said. “I would like to do some tests to check on some things - would that be acceptable? It should not take long.”

“Of course, Curie,” Nora said warmly. “I hear I’ve got you to thank for looking after me.”

Curie blushed. “It is no problem.”

“The others would love to see you, I’m sure,” Cait said with a grin. “I’ll go make sure everyone’s awake and knows what’s going - MacCready, can you come grab us when Curie’s done her tests so we can set some minds at ease?”

“Not a problem.”

At Nora’s request, MacCready sat back in his armchair by her bedside and held her hand as Curie busied herself checking Nora over. He had no idea exactly what Curie was doing, despite her cheerful attempts to explain as she worked, but honestly it didn’t really matter to him - Nora was here, and awake, and wasn’t terrified of him. That was enough. 

_You’re such a liar, MacCready. That’s not nearly all you want and you know it._

“I imagine it will take awhile for you to get your strength back properly,” Curie said after she completed her tests. “How are you feeling now?” 

“Honestly? I’m kind of exhausted,” she admitted. 

Curie nodded. “The others can visit in the morning, then.”

Nora looked dismayed. “Oh no, I want to see everyone! Would a quick visit be okay?” 

Curie didn’t look terribly convinced but MacCready was fairly certain she wouldn’t deny Nora anything at this point. “Alright,” she said finally. “I will go tell the others. Monsieur MacCready, you can stay here.”

Curie headed out into the night and Nora sighed. “I don’t like that I made everyone worry,” she admitted. 

MacCready had to laugh. “You’re something else, did you know that?” Nora startled a bit, looking a bit lost. He shot her a look of concern. “You okay?” 

“Yeah,” she assured him. “Just… whole bunch of things jumbling around in my head.”

“Remembering stuff?” he asked hesitantly. 

“Bits and pieces,” she said, grabbing his hand to reassure him. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

He squeezed her hand back as the rest of the group piled through the door. 

“Blue!” Piper exclaimed, rushing over to give Nora a gentle hug. “We were so worried. I’m so glad you’re awake - how are you feeling?”

“Tired,” she admitted. “Which makes no sense, seeing as apparently I slept away the last 2 days.”

“Well, it is the middle of the night,” Nick pointed out, his voice full of warmth. “It’s good to see you awake, kid. Thought we’d lost you for awhile there.”

“It’ll take more than a robot on wheels to take me down,” Nora quipped playfully, earning a laugh from the group.

“That’s our girl,” Hancock said with a grin. “Good to have you back, sunshine.”

“You just can’t stay out of trouble, can you Wanderer?” said Deacon with a shake of his head. 

Preston tipped his hat with a warm smile. “Glad you’re alright, General.”

Danse nodded from the corner. “I’m glad to see you recovered, Knight.” 

“I’m so glad we got you out of there,” Isabel chimed in. Nora’s eyes widened at the sight of her. Isabel blushed and waved nervously. 

“Isabel! How did you… that’s right, MacCready said something about a radio signal.” Nora looked absolutely overwhelmed. “You must have traveled a long way, Isabel - you get here okay? You brought your robots with you, right?” 

“Her robots gave us the edge we needed to get you back,” Preston said, sending a grateful smile Isabel’s way. “She really came through for us. Don’t know what we would have done without her.”

Nora grinned. “I guess you could call that... Deus Ex Mechanist.” 

There was a moment of stunned silence before the entire room burst into hysterical laughter. 

“I feel like I’m missing something,” said Nora, mystified. 

MacCready grinned. “I _may_ have made that exact same joke when Isabel arrived.”

“It’s official,” Deacon quipped, “you two spend way too much time together.”

Cait shrugged. “Second time around and I still don’t get it.” 

“Mademoiselle Cait, it is a pun on ‘Deus Ex Machina’, which is Latin for ‘god from the machine’ and is commonly used as a literary device that-”

“Yeah, I didn’t really want to know.”

“Oh.”

“You feeling alright though, kid?” Nick asked, focusing his attention back on Nora, tone obviously concerned. “Hell of a thing you went through.”

“I… I don’t remember all of it,” Nora admitted. “But it’s coming back. And I’m okay.”

“Well, we’re all here for you,” Hancock chimed in. “Whatever you need.”

“Curie, now that she’s awake, we can take her to the Prydwen for a full medical evaluation if you think it’s necessary,” Danse pointed out. “Not that you haven’t done a fine job, but the med bay on the Prydwen is considerably more equipped.”

“It is something to consider, but now that she is awake it is for Mademoiselle Nora to decide,” Curie replied. “In the morning, that is. For now, I would like for her to have some more rest - and for myself also.”

“It’s nearly 4am,” Nick pointed out. “You can all catch a few more hours shut-eye. I can stay with Nora if you’d like, Curie.”

“I can stay,” MacCready offered quickly. Nick raised an eyebrow and MacCready tried not to blush. 

“Well alright,” Nick agreed. He gestured to the rest of the group. “You heard the doc. Clear out, get some more sleep and we’ll see Nora again in the morning.”

Everyone said their goodbyes and headed out of the clinic, leaving MacCready and Nora alone again. 

“Think everyone’s gonna sleep a bit better tonight, knowing you’re safe,” he said quietly. “I know I will.”

Nora tried to hide a yawn with very little success. “You should be getting some sleep too, you know. You don’t have to watch me.”

“I’m staying,” he said firmly. “This is a pretty comfy chair, I can sleep here if I need to. Just want to keep an eye on you, make sure you don’t run off on some crazy adventure in the middle of the night.”

She looked at him intently. “I just want to clear one thing up first.”

“What’s that?”

“We will be talking about what that scientist showed you,” Nora said, as firmly as he’d insisted on staying with her. “Whether I remember it on my own or you tell me in a few days when we’ve both had some time to recover, this is a conversation you’re not getting out of, okay? I don’t want whatever it is to get in the way of our relationship.”

“Our relationship?” he repeated, feeling his heart quicken slightly. 

Nora blushed a deep red. “Our working relationship,” she clarified quickly. “And our friendship. And… we’ll talk, okay?”

MacCready nodded, trying desperately not to read too much into her words. “We’ll talk.”

She drifted off to sleep. He curled up into the armchair, absently noting as sleep overtook him (for the first time in nearly a week) that they were still holding hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Home stretch, guys! We've still got a couple of things to sort out but we're getting closer and closer to the end of this ride. This chapter was a right royal pain in the ass but I've finally got it to something I can live with, so hopefully you've enjoyed it!


	16. Chapter 16

**NORA**

Curie insisted Nora stay on bed rest for most of the next day, much to her frustration. She hadn’t spent this much time bedridden since the week before Shaun was born (over 200 years ago now) and she wasn’t any more fond of it now as she’d been then.

“You have been through much,” Curie scolded. “Your body needs rest, and you do not give it enough. You must be careful, otherwise you will not recover.” She fixed Nora with a glare before heading out of the clinic. “I will return soon. Please behave yourself.”

“Listen to the doctor,” MacCready chimed in from the chair next to her bed he’d more or less taken up residence in since Nora woke up. She glared at him and he grinned smugly. 

“Fine,” she muttered. 

There was a knock at the door and one of the settlers poked her head in. “Mr. MacCready?” she asked when she spotted him. “One of the missile turrets on the roof fell off.”

Nora looked at MacCready in mild surprise. He sighed and stood up. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Thought you weren’t the hammer and nails type,” Nora teased. 

“Yeah, well while you were having your nap, someone had to make sure this place was properly defended,” he retorted with a smirk. “When you’re on your feet again, I’ll give you the grand tour.”

Nora’s heart swelled with affection. “Well, well, well,” she replied. “Aren’t you full of surprises?”

“You have no idea,” he shot back with a wink that had her blushing like a teenager. “Be back soon. Stay in bed.”

MacCready headed out into the settlement and Nora lay back in the bed with a sigh, closing her eyes and working through her fragmented memories of her time in the vault. It was like trying to remember a dream - a particularly vivid dream, sure, but they didn’t have quite the same _feel_ as reality. Then again, when she first got out of that cryopod and saw Nate’s dead body, that hadn’t felt real. The first time she saw a Deathclaw, that hadn’t felt real either. And all of the things she’d done - trekking through the Glowing Sea, taking a chip of a Courser’s brain to help teleport into the Institute, miles below the ground - well, they didn’t feel particularly real. 

She supposed that real was relative these days. Things she would have thought were particularly vivid hallucinations if she’d encountered them pre-war were the norm now. The world wasn’t the same. _She_ wasn’t the same. 

“You awake there Wanderer?” 

Nora opened her eyes to see Deacon leaning on the doorway, decked out in road leathers, a black wig and his ever present sunglasses. 

“Railroad tracks,” she blurted out. 

He chuckled. “Well, I try not to leave those.” 

She shook her head and sat up. “No, that’s not what I mean. I just remembered - when I was in the vault, you tied me to the railroad tracks and let me be run over by a train.”

Deacon looked at her for a long moment. “Are you serious?” 

“As serious as death by train,” she quipped. 

“So I guess it’s all coming back,” he said matter-of-factly. “How are you doing with all of that?”

Nora shrugged. “Parts of it are like remembering nightmares. Parts of it… they’re not so bad. I remember being back in my old life. Except it was all kind of Wizard of Oz, you know? ‘You were there, and you were there, and you were there…’” she trailed off as she realised Deacon had no idea what she was talking about. “What I mean is I remember being in my pre-war life, but people I know in this life were there as well. Nick was a detective, Piper was a journalist, Danse was in the army, Cait was a bartender… oh man, Hancock was a philosophy lecturer who liked to hit up the science department for experimental drugs.”

“Of course he was,” said Deacon with a laugh. “What was I doing in this pre-war fantasy of yours then, Wanderer?”

Nora thought about it. “Actually, I don’t remember seeing you.” She rolled her eyes. “Granted, you’re pretty good at not being seen when you don’t want to be. Maybe you were there the whole time and I just didn’t notice.”

He smirked. “Maybe.” He took a cigarette out of his pocket and rolled it around in his fingers, looking thoughtful. “How about that mercenary friend of ours? What was he doing pre-war?”

“Taking his kid to daycare,” Nora said wistfully. “Duncan and Shaun were best friends.”

“Bet he got a kick out of that when you told him.”

Nora blushed. “Actually, we haven’t talked about it all much.” She thought about the anguished look on his face as he admitted the scientist had shown him what she was seeing. “He saw something… and I’m guessing it wasn’t good, because he won’t tell me what it is. So we’re kind of just… not talking about it.” At Deacon’s expression, she sighed. “We will. I made him promise that we will. He just didn’t want to relive that.”

“I’m not surprised,” Deacon admitted. “Heavy stuff.”

“He said you were there,” said Nora, narrowing her eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what happened, then?”

Deacon shrugged. “Don’t know if it’s my story to tell.”

She snorted. “Bullshit.”

He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, bullshit’s where I live, you know that.”

“And you know if you don’t give me a straight answer, I’ll shoot you.”

“You won’t shoot me.”

“No, but I’ll think about it really hard.”

“Alright, alright,” he said finally. “Anything to clear the air between you crazy kids. That robobrain - who, super originally, just called himself Brain - gave MacCready a good ol’ fashioned villain monologue while Isabel and I picked off his robo-lackeys with the help of some of Tinker Tom’s best stealth-boys. I caught most of it. His experiment was designed to make people see what they feared but when he got his hands on you, he decided to do something different. He wanted to make you believe you were actually back in your old life, except he didn’t count on you being quite so stubborn. That’s why you’re remembering everyone in a pre-war setting - you knew it wasn’t real and reality kept breaking through.”

Nora sat stunned for a moment. “MacCready… he didn’t tell me about that.”

Deacon nodded. “Yeah, he was a bit distracted by what Brain showed him next.” His voice was deceptively casual as he continued. “The bastard didn’t like the results of his first experiment, so decided to switch tactics to mental torture - and gave MacCready a front row seat.”

_Hancock trying to rip her to shreds. Kellogg in Nick’s body, shooting her in the head. Danse dropping her off the Prydwen. Piper ordering someone to cut her open and take her head. Preston forcing her to walk through fire. Cait pummelling the life out of her in a cage fight. MacCready..._

“He kissed me, then he stabbed me,” Nora remembered. “But it wasn’t him. He wouldn’t do that. It wasn’t real. Even then, I knew it wasn’t real.” Nausea overwhelmed her. “He saw that. He saw that?” 

“He did.” Deacon frowned. “You okay? You look a little green.”

“That’s… oh god, I have to tell him I know it wasn’t real,” she said hurriedly, pushing aside the blanket covering her and swinging her legs around to the side of the bed. 

Deacon rushed over and grabbed her before she could stand up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa there… you’re not in any shape to be going anywhere.”

“It wasn’t real,” she insisted. “He has to know that.”

“He does,” Deacon reassured her. “He knows that.” Gently but firmly he helped her back into the bed and covered her with the blanket. “He also knows about Shaun.”

Nora felt her stomach sink. _No. No, no, no. Anything but that. He can’t know. He’d hate it. He’d hate me. He’d never forgive me. He…_

He’d been at her bedside all night, sleeping in a chair, holding her hand. Those weren’t the actions of someone who hated her. 

“How?” she asked. 

“That robot bastard,” Deacon said. 

“I didn’t want him to know,” Nora admitted. “I didn’t want anyone to know.” She looked at him pleadingly. “Who knows now?”

“MacCready, Isabel and I. No one else. But… I think they’d be more understanding that you’re giving them credit for,” Deacon said gently. “You shouldn’t have to carry this alone.”

“It’s no one else’s problem but mine,” she argued. “I’m responsible for him. I’m responsible for everything he’s done.”

“So first of all, that’s a load of crap,” he replied easily. “You’re not responsible for any of his choices - you didn’t get a chance to be a parent. Raised by the Institute? He’s been more or less brainwashed. Secondly, you ought to know by now that there are a whole heap of people here who care about you and want to help you with your problems. All these people came running from all over the Commonwealth the minute they heard you were in trouble - not to mention those who couldn’t make who sent weapons and food and meds and ammo, all to help _you_. That kind of devotion, in this crappy world? It doesn’t happen to just anyone.” Deacon sighed. “MacCready would probably kill me if he knew I was telling you this, but you need to know… he offered to take your place in there.”

Nora felt cold at the thought of MacCready reliving his worst fears. Watching his wife get torn to bits by feral ghouls, over and over again. Watching his son get sicker and sicker. “I wouldn’t have let him,” she said stubbornly. “Not a chance in hell.”

“Didn’t matter,” Deacon replied. “He tried anyway.”

“He’s such an idiot,” Nora muttered. 

“He loves you,” Deacon said simply. “He loves you, I’m pretty sure you love him and watching you two dance around it has been entertaining, sure, but don’t you think it’s high time you actually did something about it? Hell Nora, we could have lost you in that vault. Or you could get eaten by a deathclaw tomorrow. Or you could choke on a carrot. There are a million colorful ways to die in the wastelands and life is short. Talk to him.” Deacon smirked. “Although if you wouldn’t mind waiting until after 4am tomorrow morning, that would be great.”

Nora raised an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

“Piper bet that you and Mac would finally get together within 24 hours of you waking up. I bet it would take 48. So if you wait until after 4am, I don’t have to split the pool.”

“There’s a _pool_?” 

Deacon shrugged. “We’ve been hanging around this settlement for nearly a week now. Gotta do something to keep ourselves entertained.”

Determination set in. “I’m not waiting until the middle of the night,” she declared. “I’m going to go find him now.” She sat up, pushed off the blanket again and swung around, letting her feet touch the ground. 

“Nora, you shouldn’t be out of-”

“Do you _want_ me to tell MacCready you’re all taking bets on his love life?” she asked. 

“You’re taking bets on _what_?” came a confused voice from the doorway. “Nora, you shouldn’t be up.”

“I have to talk to you,” she said stubbornly, standing up on shaky legs. 

Deacon sighed. “Nora, sit down.”

“This is important!” 

MacCready looked at her questioningly. She opened her mouth to respond and promptly fainted. 

**MACCREADY**

He managed to catch her before she hit the ground, feeling an annoying sense of deja vu at the motion. “Dammit Deacon, I asked you to keep her from getting up,” he snapped as he carefully placed her back on the bed. 

Deacon shook his head. “Have you ever succeeded in convincing Nora not to do something she wants to do?” 

“Point taken.” MacCready took off his hat and sat in the now-familiar armchair as Deacon saw himself out with a smirk. Nora was already starting to stir, so he grabbed her hand in what he hoped was a soothing manner and squeezed it gently. 

“Robert,” she said weakly as she came to. She tried to sit up suddenly and he placed his hand on her shoulder. 

“Slowly,” he instructed. “You really need to stop fainting on me, boss. Well, stopping fainting altogether would be really nice.”

“Guess I’m in worse shape than I thought,” she said dazedly. “All I did was stand up.”

“And you won’t be doing that again for awhile now, will you,” he replied firmly. “What was so important that you had to get out of bed in spite of some pretty solid medical advice?”

“I needed to talk to you,” she replied stubbornly, looking at him intently. “Deacon told me what you saw in that vault.”

He’d seen that coming. Hell, he’d more or less made it happen, sending Deacon in to check on her, having told her that he knew. It still didn’t make it easier to handle. He took a deep breath. “So we’re having that conversation now.”

“I know it wasn’t you,” she said firmly. “I need you to know that. I don’t think you’d turn on me. Not for a minute. Not for a _second_. I trust you more than I trust anyone else here, and I don’t want you to ever think otherwise. It’s too important. You’re too important.”

MacCready sighed. “I’m glad to hear you say that,” he admitted. “It made me sick just watching that, I… I’d never do that to you.”

“Stab me or kiss me?” she said carefully. 

He blushed bright red. “I’d never stab you,” he clarified. “And I’d never kiss you _then_ stab you.”

“Well, I’m glad we’ve cleared that up,” she said with a soft smile, squeezing his hand. 

He reached over and brushed her hair out of her face. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked worriedly. “You did just faint on me.” 

“Can we just say I blacked out?” Nora pleaded with a roll of her eyes. “Fainting makes me sound like some kind of damsel-in-distress.”

“Well, we did just rescue you from being kidnapped by a mad scientist robot,” he teased. “That’s damsel-in-distress territory.”

“That’s comic book territory, more like it.” Nora let out a sigh. “When did my life get so unbelievably weird?”

“After you defrosted.” She smiled and he stroked her cheek again softly. Now that they’d cleared the air some, he couldn’t seem to stop finding little ways to touch her. “Not so frozen now,” he said quietly. “Have I mentioned how glad I am we got you out of Vault 99?” 

“What happened there anyway?” she asked. “Was there anything useful in there?”

He grinned. “I’ll give you a full inventory later on. We got everything out that wasn’t nailed down and then some. It’s all organized - should be a proper catalogue if they stuck to the system I gave them.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You gave them a system?” 

He shrugged. “Hey, after all the trouble that place caused us, I wanted to make sure that when you woke up it was all ready for you to work your magic with.” He felt his heart clench, thinking about the 2 days she spent unconscious. “It looked like you weren’t going to wake up for awhile,” he confessed. “Do you realise just how dangerous this whole thing was? How close I - we were to losing you?” 

“I’m sorry,” she said softly, her eyes shining with unshed tears. And that was like a kick to the stomach. 

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said hurriedly. “I just… I was so scared I’d never see you again. That the last time we talked you thought I wasn’t real. That you’d die thinking that I’d killed you. And that… that might have killed me, too.” The words came out in a rush. “Look, I hope I’m not reading the wrong things into this but… you stopped being just my employer a long time ago and you stopped being _just_ my friend, too. And I don’t want to assume, or disrespect your husband’s memory, but I feel like there’s something more than friendship between us. All that crap that went down in the vault just made it even clearer how much you mean to me. And…”

Nora had sat up as he spoke and was now inches away from him. Her lips tantalisingly close. Her dark eyes intent. Her thumb once again tracing soft circles on his hand. He forgot what he was saying for a moment, then blurted out: “If I kissed you right now, how would you react?” 

“Extremely positively.”

He kissed her. 

It was like being lovingly electrocuted - and oh, if this killed him, then what a way to go. Her lips were as soft as he’d always imagined, the heat of her mouth warm and inviting. Her hands tangled up in his hair and it sent shivers all through him. He wrapped his arms around her, revelling in her warmth, her closeness, how _alive_ she was. So alive, she just might resurrect all the things inside him he’d thought had died with Lucy, given time. 

She broke off the kiss for air and laughed softly, smiling from ear to ear. He was sure the same ridiculous smile was plastered all over his face, too. “I’m so glad you feel the same way I do,” she said breathlessly. “I thought you might but I wasn’t sure.”

“To think we could have been doing this ages ago,” MacCready said with a grin. 

“We wouldn’t have gotten anything else done,” she retorted, before pulling him back in for another scorching kiss, this one more heated than the last. 

“Mr. Macready, the missile turret just… oh!”

They broke apart to see the settler from earlier standing in the doorway, looking absolutely mortified. 

“I’m really sorry!” she stammered. 

“Lieutenant Garvey should be able to assist,” Nora said, in a deceptively official tone that didn’t show a hint of shame at being caught making out with a mercenary. “Mr. MacCready’s busy with me. Official General business.”

MacCready tried and failed not to crack up laughing as the settler scurried out, red as a tato. “Official General business?” he repeated with a huge grin. 

Nora grinned back. “Well, it’s official, I’m the General and I’d like to get all up in your business.”

The only response that made any sense at all was to kiss her until they were both senseless.

**NORA**

She could kiss him for hours. She could kiss him for _days_. She could let the entire world go by and just stay with him, in this tiny room, on this uncomfortable bed, until the sun imploded. He was just that good at it - and didn’t it just _figure_ that the smartmouth mercenary with good with his tongue? It was everything she’d ever dreamed of and then some. She pressed against his wiry frame, needing to be closer, closer. Running her hands through his dirty blond hair. Feeling his mouth on hers, his heartbeat against her chest. 

He broke off their kiss to look into her eyes, staring at her for a long moment with a soft smile. She smiled back. “You okay?” she asked. 

“I’m way better than okay,” he assured her. “Don’t know what karma I cashed, but I definitely don’t deserve someone as good as you.”

“Self-deprecating asshole,” she said fondly, before remembering what Deacon had said. “Speaking of which, Deacon told me you tried to convince that robobrain to take my place in that experiment.” She fixed him with a stern look. “I would never have let that happen.”

“It was a bluff,” he said, trying and failing to sound blase. “I knew Isabel and Deacon were about to sort things out. Just needed to keep it distracted.”

“Yeah, well, if we ever get into a situation like that again, promise me you won’t do that,” Nora insisted. “You can’t do that, Robert. You can’t.”

“I can’t promise that,” he said softly, painfully. “I would do anything to keep you safe, Nora. Anything.”

“Duncan needs you,” she countered. “I can’t be responsible for taking a kid’s dad away from him.”

“And I can’t lose anyone else,” he replied insistently. “So how about we agree that we both survive whatever the Commonwealth throws at us, huh?”

Her stomach churned. “You know that’s not how it works.” She took a deep breath. “I think a war’s coming, Robert.” She paused. “Is it okay if I call you that?”

“I like it,” he replied with a soft smile, which then faded as he took in her earlier words. “A war with the Institute, huh? With Shaun?”

It hurt to hear her son’s name. She searched Robert’s face for any sign of disgust or disapproval and found none. She sighed. “I don’t want to have to hurt him, but I can’t let him keep hurting people. He’s made it clear that the next time we meet, we’ll be enemies.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I don’t know what to do. I know it’s going to come to a head soon - it has to. I’ve been trying to distract myself for months, trying not to think about it… but I have to face it sooner rather than later.”

He leaned in and kissed her gently. “You’re not alone,” he promised as he pulled away. “We’re in this together and we’re going to figure it out. Everything’s going to be alright, as long as we stick together.”

She pulled him closer and kissed him again, letting the world melt away with the touch of his lips, the feel of his body on hers. “I’ll hold you to that,” she promised. 

“Gladly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. There's an epilogue, too.


	17. Chapter 17

EPILOGUE

The evening air filled with the sound of laughter and conversation. The General of the Minutemen, while not quite back to full strength, had been taken off bed rest and had been allowed to leave the medical clinic for the night. She was curled up in an armchair by the fire, sharing a meal with her companions in the glow of the setting sun. 

It wasn’t often that all of Nora’s friends found themselves in one place - this might have been the first time - but Nora vowed that she’d make sure to gather them all together more often for something a little less emotionally fraught than a rescue operation. When the next morning dawned, most of them would be going their separate ways - Preston to Sanctuary, Danse to the Prydwen, Hancock to Goodneigbor, Piper and Nick to Diamond City and Deacon to Railroad HQ. 

Deacon had agreed to take a quick detour to escort Isabel back to The Mechanist’s Lair (he insisted on calling it that, despite Isabel’s insistence that she wasn’t The Mechanist anymore). Curie would stay on at Sunshine Tidings as Nora recovered and Cait also planned to stick around, for reasons she insisted had nothing to do with Lara, the attractive bartender.

And MacCready? He’d go where Nora went. It scared him a little, just how hard he’d fallen for her. When he lost Lucy, he’d vowed he’d never let anyone in for fear of going through that pain again. He understood more than most how vulnerable loving someone made you. Loving someone when you’ve got no guarantees you won’t lose them? It’s brave. MacCready had never considered himself a brave man - foolhardy, resilient, but not brave. Thanks to Nora, it was something he was learning. He’d follow her to the ends of the earth. Hell, he already had. 

Nora looked around at her friends, smiling at their antics. Hancock was, as usual, high as a kite, engaging in some sort of debate about the properties of various chemicals with Curie that Nora was about 60% sure Hancock was making up. The synth seemed utterly fascinated, however, and Nora chuckled to herself, remembering their interactions in the vault illusion being nowhere near this congenial. 

Piper was peppering Danse with all sorts of questions about the Brotherhood. Could he tell her more about their hierarchy? What were they really looking for in the Commonwealth? Were the stories about Elder Maxson true? Danse was, understandably, giving the reporter very little to go on, although he did occasionally drop in the suggestion that Piper join if she wanted more information - with her thirst for knowledge, she’d make an excellent scribe. That suggestion earned an eyeroll of epic proportions from Piper, which in turn resulted in a rare smile from Danse. 

Isabel and Nick had found common ground given their interest in technology, and Nick seemed to have taken a shine to the nervous teenager and her robots. In turn, Isabel had given Nick a thorough tune-up that he admitted had him feeling better than he had in a long while. Nora made Nick promise to visit Isabel regularly for tune-ups, which Isabel refused to accept payment for. To Nora’s surprise and delight, Isabel had also gotten the Pip-Boys working and installed a 2-way communication in all of them, as well as Nora’s. Not only was a Pip-Boy useful for keeping track of radiation, health and inventory, it was now also a way for all of Nora’s companions to keep in touch with Nora and each other. 

Deacon was busy trying to convince the settler who’d walked in on Nora and MacCready (who still couldn’t look either of them in the eye) all manner of tall tales in true Deacon fashion, which she seemed to be eating up with wide eyes. Nora and MacCready exchanged a look, silently debating as to whether to clue to poor girl in, but in the end decided to let Deacon have his fun. Chances are that next time they crossed paths she wouldn’t recognise him anyway. 

Cait was helping Lara serve dinner, chatting and occasionally stopping for a kiss, which Nora found very sweet. The other settlers had gotten used to Cait’s occasional brusque manner throughout her stay, which made for some entertaining interactions - the sweet, kind-hearted and practical Lara and the foul-mouthed, aggressive Cait were an interesting pair, but Nora knew Cait had a heart of gold and despite Cait’s insistence that it wasn’t serious (which she figured had less to do with how Cait felt about Lara and more about how Cait felt about Cait) she wished them all the best. 

As for Preston, he’d finally managed to sit quietly with a beer after a long day’s work putting the finishing touches on the defences. The settlement was now entirely surrounded, with turrets on each structure and multiple guard posts, covering all entrances. What’s more, they’d finally managed to get the missile turret to stay put (Nora had suggested building a platform, which both MacCready and Preston had to admit was something they probably should have thought of themselves).

“I have to say, it’s gonna be an awful lot quieter around here once you’re all gone,” said Bill, a middle-aged settler who served as an unofficial leader. “Don’t much like the situation that got you here, but you’ve been good company and you’ve made a huge difference in our defences. It’s been an honor, General.”

“I’m the one who’s honored,” Nora replied humbly. “You took us all in, kept us sheltered and fed and helped get me back safely. Helping you guys with the defences, it’s the least we can do.”

“We’ll be here a few more days while she finishes recovering,” said MacCready. “But I think we’re reaching the limit of how long she can stay in one place before her brain explodes.” 

Nora glared at him and he grinned, interrupting what would no doubt be a sarcastic retort with a kiss, which had the entire group exploding in wolf-whistles. 

“That reminds me,” said Nora once they broke off the kiss. “How many caps was in the pool?”

“500 all up,” said Piper. “Deacon and I split it down the middle.”

“Deacon’s a dirty liar,” Nora scoffed. “He told me about it - he wanted me to wait til the next day so he’d get all the winnings to himself. I think that disqualifies him, don’t you?” 

Laughter broke out across the group as Deacon held up his hands in mock surrender. Piper reached out her hand for the remaining caps and as he handed them over, MacCready swiped them. “Considering all you ass- er, jerks bet on whether or not Nora and I would hook up, I think we’re entitled to these caps.”

“We didn’t bet on whether you’d hook up or not,” Hancock corrected. “We bet on _when_ you’d hook up.”

MacCready blushed, but waved off Hancock’s comment. “Whatever. I think that Piper should hand over her winnings, too.”

Piper gasped indignantly. “Like hell I will!”

MacCready grinned. “Oh, come on, Piper. I think that all the caps you suckers bet on Nora and I should go to buying out whatever good booze Lara’s got tucked away in the bar and celebrating her safe return, what do you say?”

“Can’t argue with that,” Piper agreed, fishing out a bag of caps from her pocket and tossing it to MacCready, who presented them to Lara with a flourish. 

“Well alright,” said Lara, beaming. “You’re in luck - got a shipment of Bobrov’s Finest Moonshine in this morning.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking ‘bout, darlin’!” crowed Cait, giving Lara a peck on the cheek. “Let’s make it a night to remember, huh?” 

Drinks were handed out all around, to everyone’s enthusiasm. One of the settlers dragged out a radio and the soft sounds of music surrounded them, making the atmosphere all the more warmer. Some people even got up to dance, Nora watching on wistfully. MacCready caught her staring and nudged her softly. “If you want to dance, I’ll make sure you don’t fall flat on your butt.”

Nora laughed. “Sure you can handle that?”

He smirked. “I can handle anything.” He helped her to her feet - still a bit unsteady, but on the way to recovery - and held her close, the two of them swaying to the music under the newly visible stars. 

“This is nice,” she said, leaning against his shoulder. “I haven’t done this in a long time.”

He laughed. “I haven’t done this ever.”

“Really? Well, you’re doing great.”

“Hey, it’s not all that hard,” he said confidently. “And anything that means I get to hold you is pretty good in my book.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere.” 

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Happy. For the first time in my life, I’m happy. Can you believe it?”

Nora smiled warmly. “That’s all I want for you. To be happy.”

“How about you?” he asked shyly. “I want that for you, too.”

She smiled, taking in the atmosphere around her. Her friends, all gathered together, eating, drinking and dancing under the stars. The settlers with roofs over their heads, defences from the dangers of the wastes, resources to make their lives better and crops to eat. This mad, dangerous, beautiful wasteland that had taken so much from her - but given her so much she’d never expected. 

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I’m happy, Robert.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand that's a wrap. These nerds get their happy ending after all. Thanks for sticking around, everyone! If you want to rant about Fallout or whatever, hit me up on Tumblr - I'm always super thrilled to chat to anyone. You'll find me at vinegar-and-glitter.tumblr.com and I'd love to keep in touch with some of the cool people who've been commenting!


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